President Donald Trump warned Iran to make a nuclear deal with the US or face military strikes far worse than the attack he ordered last June, ratcheting up pressure on the regime even as regional leaders sought to spur fresh diplomacy between the adversaries.

The US president, who has previously vowed to "rescue" protesters in Iran, says a "massive Armada" is on the way to the country.

Iran unveiled a new banner over the weekend in Tehran’s Enghelab Square threatening the USS Abraham Lincoln, showing an aircraft carrier strewn with bodies and streaked with blood.

He went out for freedom,” said the cousin of one of those who was killed when Iranian authorities mounted a deadly crackdown on protests across the country.

The deployment of a US carrier strike group places overwhelming American firepower within striking distance of Iran, but it also raises the risk of confrontation in a region where miscalculation can spiral quickly.

Iran protest death toll estimates range from several thousand to over 35,000 as brutal crackdown intensifies. Medical data reveals shocking scale of violence.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian officials reached out to the wider Middle East on Wednesday over the threat of a possible U.S. military strike on the country, a month since the start of protests in Iran that soon spread nationwide and sparked a bloody crackdown.

Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. say Washington can’t use their airspace for a military operation against Tehran.