US President Donald Trump said Iran is willing to negotiate and the United States is also open to dialogue, speaking at the signing ceremony of the Peace Council charter in Davos on January 21.

"Iran wants to negotiate, and we will negotiate," Trump said at the event.

The comments come as tensions between Washington and Tehran have escalated sharply, with the United States deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf and conducting extensive military airlift operations to the Middle East.

Trump's statement follows large-scale anti-government protests in Iran that continued in late December 2025 and early January 2026, during which the president threatened military strikes against Tehran over its crackdown on demonstrators.

Despite the public tensions, contacts between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Presidential Special Envoy Steve Witkoff have continued, according to reports.

The president postponed immediate military strikes against Iran last week, telling reporters he had been informed "on good authority" that killings of protesters had stopped.

Trump also claimed on January 17 that 800 planned executions in Iran had been halted, though the claim could not be independently verified. Araghchi denied in a Fox News interview that Tehran had any plans to execute protesters.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Major General Mohammad Pakpour said on January 22 that the force is "more ready than ever" to execute orders from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warning the US and Israel to avoid miscalculations.

Iran's Prosecutor General warned on January 21 that all American bases in the region and Israel would become "legitimate targets" if Iranian territory is attacked.

The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, which includes guided-missile destroyers and F-35C fighters, is expected to arrive in the Persian Gulf within approximately one week.

The Pentagon has also deployed F-15 fighters to Jordan and is positioning Patriot and THAAD air defence batteries across Gulf states.