The high-profile stop was widely interpreted as a deliberate show of force conducted alongside ongoing diplomatic efforts.
By World Israel News Staff
U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, visited the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on Saturday, one day after a round of indirect talks with Iran held in Muscat, the capital of Oman.
The visit took place hours after the negotiations and followed satellite imagery showing the massive carrier operating south of Oman earlier that morning.
The Abraham Lincoln is the flagship of the U.S. Navy’s carrier strike group currently deployed in the Middle East and a central component of Washington’s regional military posture.
Witkoff and Kushner were joined aboard the carrier by U.S. Central Command commander Brad Cooper, who also participated in the indirect talks with Iranian representatives.
According to CNN, the visit was intended to thank the roughly 6,000 sailors aboard the Lincoln, along with thousands of additional U.S. troops deployed across the region, as part of American preparations for the possibility that Trump could order military action if negotiations fail.
The high-profile stop was widely interpreted as a deliberate show of force conducted alongside ongoing diplomatic efforts.
Iran publicly criticized the optics of the carrier visit and the proximity of a senior U.S. military commander to the talks.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the presence of the CENTCOM commander “changes nothing” in substance for Tehran.
Araghchi said Iran was told Cooper had arrived primarily to continue on to visit his aircraft carrier, and that the United States requested his presence at what it described as a customary courtesy meeting linked to the negotiations.
“We strongly opposed this and said we do not accept the presence of a military official during our negotiations,” Araghchi said. The remarks reflected Iranian complaints that Washington is pairing diplomacy with overt military pressure.
Earlier Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian described the Iran–U.S. talks as a step forward but warned that Tehran rejects what he called the “language of force.”
He said Iran favors dialogue and peaceful solutions, but will not accept negotiations conducted under military pressure, adding that its nuclear position is grounded in rights guaranteed by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group is operating in the U.S. 5th Fleet area, with the carrier conducting routine flight operations in the Arabian Sea south of Iran, according to U.S. Central Command.
The group includes the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., USS Spruance, and USS Michael Murphy, and was redirected to the Middle East amid heightened tensions with Tehran, marking the third redeployment from the Indo-Pacific driven by regional instability.
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