Revolutionary Guards Contact US Aircraft Carrier

The US aircraft carrier which the IRGC said it has contacted. Mehr news agency
The US aircraft carrier which the IRGC said it has contacted. Mehr news agency
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Revolutionary Guards Contact US Aircraft Carrier

The US aircraft carrier which the IRGC said it has contacted. Mehr news agency
The US aircraft carrier which the IRGC said it has contacted. Mehr news agency

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Navy Commander revealed on Friday new information about the surveillance and detection of a US strike group, including USS Nimitz aircraft carrier.

Rear Admiral Ali Reza Tangsiri told Iranian television that the US carriers were monitored by the army’s naval forces and IRGC’s navy under the supervision of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the leadership of Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters.

He said Iran monitored the US naval forces by air and by sea, adding that the flotilla has not entered the Gulf area for the past 10 months.

“IRGC forces detected the US strike group. The Iran forces contacted them and asked them some questions,” Tangsiri said, confirming that the US forces responded to the Iranian inquiries.

“This area belongs to us. We have full control over it from the moment a vessel sets sail from a port to the moment it arrives,” the Iranian Admiral said.

“The Americans should be in the Arabian Gulf, because when they are there, this means that we completely control them,” he added.

On Wednesday, Tangsiri said that a drone of the IRGC’s Navy detected a US strike group before the flotilla cruised through the Strait of Hormuz and into the waters of the Gulf.

The detected US vessels were the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier along with its flotilla of ships, including two destroyers with identification numbers 114 and 104, battle cruisers 58 and 59, two patrol frigates with identification numbers 9 and 12, and a coast guard cutter with code 1333.

Tangsiri said the IRGC Navy will acquire drone and helicopter-carrying vessels this year.

The Iranian Army’s Navy Commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi said Iran monitors US naval forces “the moment they set sail from port.”

He added that the Iranian Navy conducts its operations, such as monitoring and controlling the movements of US vessels through full coordination with the IRGC.

He said the Americans are monitored by the Iranian Army’s Navy in the Arabian Sea. “Once they enter the Arabian Gulf, it’s the IRGC which monitors them,” he said.

The Iranian Commander revealed that the Dena destroyer, a vessel of the Jamaran-class, will be unveiled in December.

He told Press TV that a fourth Fateh submarine is being developed with air-independent propulsion (AIP), allowing the craft to remain submerged for a longer duration.



Iran Top Diplomat Rejects Direct Negotiations with US

Iranian demonstrators walk on representations of the Israeli and US flags during the annual anti-Israeli Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day rally in support of Palestinians, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP)
Iranian demonstrators walk on representations of the Israeli and US flags during the annual anti-Israeli Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day rally in support of Palestinians, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP)
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Iran Top Diplomat Rejects Direct Negotiations with US

Iranian demonstrators walk on representations of the Israeli and US flags during the annual anti-Israeli Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day rally in support of Palestinians, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP)
Iranian demonstrators walk on representations of the Israeli and US flags during the annual anti-Israeli Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day rally in support of Palestinians, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP)

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday rejected direct negotiations with the United States as "meaningless", after US President Donald Trump said he would prefer direct talks with Tehran.

Trump had called last month on Tehran to hold negotiations on its nuclear program with Washington, but threatened to bomb Iran if diplomacy fails.

On Thursday, the US president said he would prefer to hold "direct talks" with Iran.

"I think it goes faster and you understand the other side a lot better than if you go through intermediaries," he argued.

But on Sunday, Araghchi said "direct negotiations would be meaningless with a party that constantly threatens to resort to force in violation of the UN Charter and that expresses contradictory positions from its various officials".

"We remain committed to diplomacy and are ready to try the path of indirect negotiations," he added, according to a foreign ministry statement.

"Iran keeps itself prepared for all possible or probable events, and just as it is serious in diplomacy and negotiations, it will also be decisive and serious in defending its national interests and sovereignty," Araghchi said.

On Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country was willing to engage in dialogue with the US "on equal footing".

He also questioned Washington's sincerity in calling for negotiations, saying "if you want negotiations, then what is the point of threatening?"

- Nuclear program -

Western countries, led by the United States, have for decades accused Tehran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

Iran rejects the allegation and maintains that its nuclear activities exist solely for civilian purposes.

On Saturday Hossein Salami, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, said the country was "ready" for war.

"We are not worried about war at all. We will not be the initiators of war, but we are ready for any war," the official IRNA news agency reported him as saying.

In 2015, Iran reached a landmark deal with the permanent members of the UN Security Council, namely the United States, France, China, Russia, and the United Kingdom, as well as Germany, to regulate its nuclear activities.

The 2015 agreement formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program to guarantee that Tehran could not develop a nuclear weapon.

In 2018, during Trump's first term in office, the United States withdrew from the agreement and reinstated biting sanctions on Iran.

A year later, Iran began rolling back on its commitments under the agreement and accelerated its nuclear program.

On Monday, Ali Larijani, a close adviser to supreme leader Ali Khamenei, warned that while Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons, it would "have no choice but to do so" in the event of an attack against it.