Trump’s special envoy Witkoff and Kushner visit US aircraft carrier amid Iran tensions, talks

U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff along with Jared Kushner and Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), visited the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea on a scheduled deployment Saturday.

The visit comes amid tensions with Iran as Witkoff said the service members were “keeping us safe and upholding President Trump’s message of peace through strength,” and a day after the U.S. and Iran held talks in Oman to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.

“We thanked the sailors and Marines, observed live flight operations, and spoke with the pilot who downed an Iranian drone that approached the carrier without clear intent,” Witkoff wrote on X. “Proud to stand with the men and women who defend our interests, deter our adversaries, and show the world what American readiness and resolve look like, on watch every day.”

The aircraft carrier left San Diego in November for the Indo-Pacific region and moved to the Middle East in January.

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“I join the American people in expressing our incredible pride in the Sailors and Marines of the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group,” Cooper told the service members. “Their dedication to the mission and professionalism are on full display here in the Middle East as they demonstrate U.S. military readiness and strength.”

This comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he would meet with President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to discuss Iran.

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“The prime minister believes that all negotiations must include limiting ballistic missiles, and ending support for the Iranian axis,” Netanyahu’s office said, referring to Tehran’s support for groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

The two leaders last met in September.

Trump described Friday’s Oman talks, which included Witkoff and Kushner, as “very good.”

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“Iran looks like it wants to make a deal very badly,” the president told reporters Friday aboard Air Force One en route to Mar-a-Lago. “We have to see what that deal is.”

Kick Iran out of Olympics, World Cup for execution of over 30 athletes, activists demand

A longtime critic of the Iranian regime and the former head of the rogue nation’s national wrestling team are urging sports organizations to ban Iran from competitions just weeks after Tehran executed thousands of anti-government demonstrators.

The sport of wrestling — a national pastime in Iran — has been hit hard by the Iranian regime’s slaughter of protesters seeking to end 47-years of Islamist totalitarian rule in the country. According to a Friday report from the London-based independent news organization Iran International, the clerical regime killed Parsa Lorestani , a 15-year-old protester and wrestler from the city of Zagheh in western Iran. A government sniper killed Lorestani in the city of Khorramabad during a protest on Jan. 8.  The outlet showed video of the young boy wrestling.

“Another wrestler murdered. Erfan Kari was 20. A champion,” Iranian-American Sardar Parshei, former head coach of Iran’s national Greco-Roman wrestling, wrote on his X account Friday.”He could have been an Olympian. Instead, the Islamic regime shot him for protesting. Other wrestlers are still in prison. Be their voice. Save them.”

Prominent dissident Masih Alinejad announced to her 786.800 followers in X post on Friday that, “The Islamic Republic has slaughtered over 40,000 protesters, thousands of them athletes, children, teenagers, young people, women, men, and from various sports disciplines. At the same time, the regime shamelessly exploits international sporting events to legitimize itself and whitewash its crimes. With the upcoming FIFA World Cup to be hosted in the United States, we demand that FIFA take a firm and principled stand.”

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Alinejad noted that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is recognized by the U.S. and European Union as a terrorist organization, controls all aspects of Iranian society, including sports.

“FIFA, the International Olympic Committee and all global sports organizations must refuse to legitimize a system that massacres its own people and athletes for demanding freedom and human dignity,” Alinejad said. “Boycott the Islamic Republic from all international sporting competitions.”

Afsoon Roshanzamir Johnston, the first American female wrestler to win a medal in world championship competition in 1989, told Fox News Digital the slaughter of protesters in her homeland makes her sick.

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“It is with a very sad and heavy heart that I speak for the Iranian people and the dire situation currently unfolding in my homeland.,” she said. “Having been a young girl in Iran during the 1979 Revolution, I vividly remember the feeling of the clocks being turned back 100 years as women’s freedoms and fundamental human rights were stripped away overnight.”

Roshanzamir Johnston said females women are denied the basic right to participate in athletics, and young male wrestlers are being tortured and executed.

“We can no longer turn a blind eye to this brutality,” she said. “It is time for a call to action: we must find a way to place undeniable pressure on the regime to end these mass killings without stripping our athletes of their hard-earned opportunities. The world must stand with the people of Iran before more of our bravest souls are lost.”

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Parshei, who was a world champion Greco-Roman wrestler, told Fox News Digital that he is also campaigning for the IOC and the United World Wrestling organization to block Iran from competitions.

When asked if the IOC would ban Iran and whether the Olympic body agrees with the U.S. demand that Iran not execute 19-year-old wrestler Saleh Mohammadi, who faces an imminent death penalty, the IOC media team directed Fox News Digital to a January 29 statement on the matter.

“We will continue to work with our Olympic stakeholders to help where we can, often through quiet sport diplomacy. The IOC remains in touch with the Olympic community from Iran.”

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Dan Russell, executive director of the U.S.-based Wrestling for Peace organization, said sports and diplomacy can be complicated, but in the current situation, athletes must stand together.

“Neutrality cannot mean indifference when lives are at stake,” Russell said. “Sport must take a stand for peace, respect, and human dignity.”

“Every option must be considered to demand an immediate halt to executions, the release of imprisoned wrestlers such as Saleh Mohammadi and Alireza Nejati, and basic protections for athletes who speak with conscience,” Russell added. “Athletes who represent the best of who we are as the wrestling family. “

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A spokesman for Iran’s UN mission told Fox News Digital that “The mission declined to comment.”

But not all critics of Tehran’s brutal regime support banning Iran from sports competitions.

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“I am not in favour of banning Iran’s wrestling team,” said Potkin Azarmehr, a British-Iranian expert on the Islamic Republic. “If Iran’s wrestling team competes, it’s an opportunity for more defections and protests against the regime by the spectators which will be televised and reach millions of viewers inside Iran, too.”

“The ban would just be a blanket victimization of other wrestlers who have trained long hours for this,” he added. “Having said that, the IOC and UWW should make some statement and make sure spectators are allowed to display pictures of the fallen wrestlers.”

Russia to ‘interrogate’ two suspects in attempted assassination of top military general

Russia said it plans to “interrogate” two suspects in the attempted assassination of a top military intelligence official who was ambushed in Moscow Friday, according to a Russian newspaper.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that two suspects in the shooting of Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev “will soon be interrogated,” citing a source close to the investigation.

After questioning, the suspects are expected to be charged, the report said, according to Reuters. 

Alekseyev, the deputy head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, was shot three times in his Moscow apartment building Friday and rushed to a hospital.

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The Associated Press reported that the business daily Kommersant said the shooter posed as a delivery person and shot Alekseyev twice in the stairway of his apartment building, injuring him in the foot and arm. Alekseyev reportedly attempted to wrest the weapon away and was shot again in the chest before the attacker fled, the report said.

Kommersant reported that Alekseyev underwent successful surgery and regained consciousness Saturday but remained under medical supervision.

Russian news outlet TASS reported the surgery was successful and that Alekseyev’s injuries were not life-threatening.

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The outlet reported that the Investigative Committee launched a criminal investigation on charges of attempted murder and illicit trafficking in firearms.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the assassination attempt, alleging — without providing evidence — that it was intended to sabotage peace talks. Ukraine denied any involvement.

Alekseyev, 64, has been under U.S. sanctions over alleged Russian cyber interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The European Union also sanctioned him over the 2018 poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England.

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The assassination attempt came as President Donald Trump’s administration has been seeking to help broker peace between Russia and Ukraine.

The warring nations agreed to a prisoner swap this week, according to readouts posted on X by U.S. special presidential envoy for peace missions Steve Witkoff and Ukraine’s national security and defense council Minister Rustem Umerov.

Iran vows to ‘target US bases’ if American forces launch an attack: report

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned Saturday that Tehran will “target U.S. bases” in the region if American forces launch an attack, a report said. 

The remark came after Araghchi said Friday that indirect nuclear talks with the U.S. in Oman were “a good start” and that there was a “consensus” that the negotiations would continue. 

“It would not be possible to attack American soil, but we will target their bases in the region” if Iran is attacked by U.S. forces, Araghchi told Al Jazeera Saturday, according to Reuters. 

“We will not attack neighboring countries; rather, we will target U.S. bases stationed in them. There is a big difference between the two,” he reportedly added.

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The U.S. last June attacked nuclear facilities in Iran in what has come to be known as Operation Midnight Hammer. 

In response, Iran launched a retaliatory attack on Al-Udeid, the American airbase in Qatar, which President Donald Trump characterized at the time as a “very weak response.” 

“Iran has officially responded to our Obliteration of their Nuclear Facilities with a very weak response, which we expected, and have very effectively countered. There have been 14 missiles fired — 13 were knocked down, and 1 was ‘set free,’ because it was headed in a nonthreatening direction,” the president wrote on Truth Social. 

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Regarding Friday’s nuclear talks, Araghchi said, “It was a good start, but its continuation depends on consultations in our respective capitals and deciding on how to proceed.” 

Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi met with both Iranian and American officials on Friday, the Foreign Ministry of Oman said on X. The ministry said that al-Busaidi held separate meetings with Araghchi and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. 

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“The consultations focused on preparing the appropriate conditions for resuming diplomatic and technical negotiations, while emphasizing their importance in light of the parties’ determination to ensure their success in achieving sustainable security and stability,” the Foreign Ministry of Oman said. 

Trump says nuclear talks in Oman were ‘very good,’ claims Iran wants a deal ‘very badly’

The indirect nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran mediated by Oman were “very good,” according to President Donald Trump.

“Iran looks like it wants to make a deal very badly. We’ll have to see what that deal is. But I think Iran looks like they want to make a deal very badly, as they should. Last time they decided maybe not to do it, but I think they probably feel differently,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Friday.

The president added that the U.S. had a “big Armada” heading toward Iran, something he has spoken about in the past.

When he was pressed on how long the U.S. would be willing to wait to make a deal with Iran, the president indicated some flexibility, saying he believes the two nations can reach an agreement.

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“It can be reached. Well, we have to get in position. We have plenty of time. If you remember Venezuela, we waited around for a while, and we’re in no rush. We have very good [talks] with Iran,” Trump said.

“They know the consequences if they don’t make a deal. The consequences are very steep. So, we’ll see what happens. But they had a very good meeting with a very high representative of Iran,” the president added.

American and Iranian representatives held separate meetings with Omani officials on Friday amid flaring tensions between Washington and Tehran. Oman’s Foreign Ministry said the meetings were “focused on preparing the appropriate conditions for resuming diplomatic and technical negotiations.”

IRANIAN OFFICIAL SAYS NUCLEAR TALKS WILL CONTINUE AFTER US, TEHRAN NEGOTIATIONS HAD ‘A GOOD START’ IN OMAN

On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said indirect nuclear talks were “a good start” and that there was a “consensus” that the negotiations would continue.

“After a long period without dialogue, our viewpoints were conveyed, and our concerns were expressed. Our interests, the rights of the Iranian people and all matters that needed to be stated were presented in a very positive atmosphere, and the other side’s views were also heard,” Araghchi said.

“It was a good start, but its continuation depends on consultations in our respective capitals and deciding on how to proceed,” he added.

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While both sides expressed optimism about a possible deal, the U.S. moved to impose fresh sanctions on Iran after the talks. The State Department announced that the U.S. was sanctioning “15 entities, two individuals and 14 shadow fleet vessels connected to the illicit trade in Iranian petroleum, petroleum products, and petrochemical products.”

“Instead of investing in the welfare of its own people and crumbling infrastructure, the Iranian regime continues to fund destabilizing activities around the world and step up its repression inside Iran,” the statement added.

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“So long as the Iranian regime attempts to evade sanctions and generate oil and petrochemical revenues to fund such oppressive behavior and support terrorist activities and proxies, the United States will act to hold both the Iranian regime and its partners accountable.”

The Iranian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment on the sanctions.

Zelenskyy claims US gave Ukraine and Russia a deadline to reach peace agreement

Ukraine and Russia are reportedly working on a U.S.-set deadline to reach a peace deal that would end the nearly four-year-long war.

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters that the U.S. had set a June deadline for Moscow and Kyiv to strike an agreement, according to The Associated Press. The outlet noted Zelenskyy’s remarks were embargoed until Saturday morning.

“The Americans are proposing the parties end the war by the beginning of this summer and will probably put pressure on the parties precisely according to this schedule,” Zelenskyy said, according to the AP. The Ukrainian president also said that if the June deadline is not met, the Trump administration would likely put pressure on Moscow and Kyiv to meet.

“And they say that they want to do everything by June. And they will do everything to end the war. And they want a clear schedule of all events,” Zelenskyy added, the AP reported.

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Zelenskyy posted a video message on X on Friday saying Ukraine’s negotiators “report on the sensitive aspects of the negotiations in Abu Dhabi that cannot be discussed over the phone.” He added that Ukraine was preparing for “next meetings,” which he said would be “trilateral.”

The Ukrainian president told reporters that the U.S. had proposed it host the trilateral talks next week, likely in Miami, and that Ukraine had already confirmed it would participate, the AP reported.

President Donald Trump on Friday expressed optimism about the Russia-Ukraine talks while speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One.

“We have very good talks going with Russia and Ukraine,” Trump said.

In a readout of the trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi that took place on Feb. 4 and 5, the U.S. described the discussions as “constructive” and said they were focused on creating “the conditions for a durable peace.” The U.S. also said that the delegations had reached an agreement under which Russia and Ukraine would each release 157 prisoners of war, noting that it would be “the first exchange in the last five months.”

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Additionally, the U.S. said it and Russia have agreed to open a new channel of communication by establishing a military-to-military dialogue, which would be led by General Alexus Grynkewich, commander of U.S. European Command. The dialogue was suspended prior to the war in Ukraine, the U.S. said, adding that it was “crucial to achieving and maintaining peace.”

Despite the apparent progress, Russia and Ukraine’s war remains ongoing, with Moscow striking Kyiv’s energy infrastructure as the nation faces a brutal winter. Zelenskyy said on Saturday that the overnight attack involved 400 drones and approximately 40 “missiles of various types.” The Ukrainian president said that an apartment building and a college administrative building had been hit.

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“Every day, Russia could choose real diplomacy, but it chooses new strikes. It is crucial that everyone who supports the trilateral negotiations respond to this,” Zelenskyy said. “Moscow must be deprived of the ability to use the cold as leverage against Ukraine. This requires missiles for Patriot, NASAMS, and other systems. Every shipment helps us get through this winter.”

“I thank all our partners who understand this and are genuinely helping,” he added.

Trump previously said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to temporarily stop attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, citing the brutally cold weather.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and the State Department for comment.