DUBAI _ U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration would be ready to negotiate with Iran without preconditions, even as an American fighter bomber and aircraft carrier practiced strike operations in the Arabian Sea.
Iran sent similarly mixed messages over the weekend as weeks of tensions between the countries continued to smolder. Pompeo was responding to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's expression of willingness to negotiate with the U.S. as long as his country wasn't bullied into doing so. But earlier Sunday, an Iranian military official warned that all U.S. military forces in the Gulf were within range of his country's missiles.
Pompeo spoke after meeting with officials in Switzerland, which has represented American interests in Iran since the countries severed ties four decades ago.
"We're prepared to engage in a conversation with no preconditions," he said. "But the American effort to fundamentally reverse the malign activity of the Islamic Republic, this revolutionary force, is going to continue."
The U.S. has been beefing up its military presence in the Gulf in response to unspecified threats of attacks from Iran. The joint exercise between a B-52 bomber and an aircraft carrier was reported by the Associated Press.
Tightened Sanctions
Frictions spiked in the Gulf after the U.S. announced in April that it would tighten sanctions on Iran's oil exports, prompting an Iranian threat to scale back commitments under the 2015 multipower nuclear deal Washington quit a year ago. But the delay of sanctions on Iran's petrochemical industry suggests the Trump administration may be seeking to dial back tensions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
In recent days, the two sides have been sparring over U.S. allegations that Iran had a hand in the sabotage of Saudi oil tankers in mid-May. Iran denies involvement, and has refused to capitulate to the Trump administration's scaled-up sanctions and displays of military force.
"The Americans know very well that their military forces are within the range of Iran's missiles," said Yahya Safavi, a senior military aide to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in comments carried by state-run Fars news agency on Sunday. "The range of our missiles is more than 300 kilometers (about 200 miles), reaching the shores of countries" across the Gulf, he said, referring to Washington's oil-rich Gulf Arab allies.
Iran's fighting words come on the heels of meetings of Gulf, Arab and Islamic leaders in Mecca, where Saudi Arabia's King Salman accused Iran of threatening global oil supplies and shipping. Four oil tankers and commercial ships were reported sabotaged last month, followed by a drone strike on a Saudi oil pipeline by Iran-backed Yemeni rebels.
"The first gunshot in the Persian Gulf will send oil prices to $100," Safavi said. "The $100 per barrel oil will not be tolerable for the U.S., Europe and America's friends such as Japan and South Korea."
Brent crude closed at $64.49 a barrel on Friday.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to meet with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei this month after Trump accepted his offer for mediation with Iran, the Mainichi newspaper reported, citing an unidentified government source. Abe plans to travel to Iran from June 12 to 14, the first visit by an incumbent Japanese prime minister to the Islamic Republic since 1978.
