Name: Iran warns US military could get ‘slapped’ as nuclear talks start
Uploaded: 2026-02-17T21:32:05.000Z
Duration: 10 min 23 s
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The strongest army in the world may sometimes get slapped so hard that it cannot stand up straight.

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Iran is going to be closing parts of the Strait of Hormuz today, a vital shipping lane as it conducts naval exercises.

And the USS Gerald Ford carrier strike group is making its way to the region to join the growing show of force.

Let's bring our begin our COVERAGE Rather with CNN's Fred Flight gun, who joins us live now from Geneva, Switzerland.

So just talking about what Iran's foreign minister said there, that they have agreed just between the US And Iran, guiding principles for talks.

This, of course, does not mean that a deal is imminent.

A deal is not going to be reached quickly, in his words.

But he did describe the talks as much more serious than a previous round and certainly positive.

Well, it certainly seems on two sides are at least going to keep talking still.

And that is definitely something that's quite important, especially as over the past couple of days we have seen that military buildup in the greater Middle east and of course, those choice words coming from the Iranians and also from US President Donald Trump as far as the possible military confrontation is concerned.

So it seems as though, at least for now, diplomacy is still moving forward and is still being given a chance.

One of the interesting things about all this, Zane, is that we have heard, as you mentioned, from Abbas Arakchee, the Iranian foreign minister, saying they are mapping out a path forward to at least try and draft something together.

We haven't heard from the US Side yet, and

that certainly is no surprise, really, because Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the two main negotiators for the United States, are already in the building that you see behind me, the Intercontinental Hotel here in Geneva.

And they are at those trilateral talks to try and solve the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

So they certainly are taking on the most difficult conflicts in the world.

And right now, of course, Iran certainly does seem to be one of the more pressing ones.

As all this is going on, the military build up there continues.

You also mentioned those military exercises by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the Strait of Hormuz.

There were also some pretty strong words from Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, directed at the Americans.

It seems to them that the US President keeps saying the US army is the strongest army in the world.

The strongest army in the world may sometimes get slapped so hard that it cannot stand up straight they keep saying we've sent an aircraft carrier towards Iran.

An aircraft carrier is certainly a dangerous piece of equipment, but

more dangerous than the carrier is the weapon that can send that carrier towards the bottom of the sea.

So as you can see there some pretty strong words coming from Iran's supreme leader.

We have of course heard also US President Donald Trump in the past couple of days threatening military action, but

at the same time saying that for the United States States reaching a deal would be preferential.

However, of course, they do say that the terms for that agreement need to be right and that's exactly what the two sides seem to be working on right now.

One thing that we did get, by the way from the Iranian side is they say that their negotiators are actually going back to Tehran tonight.

There was some speculation as to whether or not the talks might move on until tomorrow.

But for now, the Iranians saying they are going to go back to Tehran, report to their superiors and see how they move forward as well.

All right, Fred Flatkin, life for us there.

The US President told reporters before the talks began that Iran wants a nuclear deal and that it doesn't want the consequences of not making a deal, obviously implying military action there.

Our next guest has actually just written about this.

Barack Ravid is a global affairs correspondent for Axios as well as a CNN political and global affairs analyst.

So just in terms of what President Trump said there, that Iran certainly does not want the consequences of not making a deal.

The US Officials also talked about this was in your piece as but they expect Iran to actually come to the negotiating tables with tangible concessions based on what the Iranian foreign minister said, though, that yes, they've agreed on guiding principles, but

that there's not going to be a deal reached quickly.

There's going to be a lot more work to be done.

Just walk us through what you're hearing from your sources about how much progress was actually made in these rounds of negotiations.

So I think we need to be very, very careful in the way that we are reading the Iranian foreign minister statement after the talks.

As far as I know, I don't think any breakthrough happened in those talks.

What I heard from US Officials after the talks was they say that the talks went as expected.

It's not really as positive of a readout as the Iranians gave after the talks.

And I think, I'm not sure, I'm not sure that at the moment there's really any agreement between the US And Iran Even when it comes to guiding principles, I think we will have to figure out more.

at least from everything I hear until now, I don't sense that any breakthrough really has really taken place.

Yeah, I mean, Donald Trump talked about this idea that the Iranians are tough negotiators.

I mean, we knew that it wasn't going to be necessarily easy.

I do want to talk about the Israeli factor in all of this.

And Netanyahu, there's several sort of key ambitions in terms of this deal that Netanyahu wants to sort of get across.

This idea that the Iranians simply cannot be trusted even if you make a deal with them, that they're not necessarily going to abide by it.

The fact that Netanyahu doesn't want to the deal just to focus on the nuclear ambitions, but

also its ballistic missile program, also Iran's support for proxy groups in the region as well.

this something you talked about in your piece, too, how much daylight there is between Netanyahu's goals for these negotiations and what Trump actually is willing to settle for.

So I don't think there is a lot of daylight, mainly because the Iranians, at least until now, did not put forward any proposal that is compelling enough for Donald Trump to come and say, you know what, I'm going for it.

And as long as this is the case, then there are not going to be major disagreements between Netanyahu and Trump.

Even if they disagree on some of the tactics, on whether there should be talks with Iran, there shouldn't be talks with Iran as long as Iran doesn't put something real on the table, which at least until now, I don't have any evidence that the Iranians have put something tangible on the table.

As long as that's the case, Donald Trump is not facing any dilemma.

And I think we need to look not only at what happened in Geneva or we need to look at what's going on in the region.

Just over the last 24 hours, 50 US fighter jets with their tankers have been moving from the US and from Europe to bases in the Middle East, F35s, F22s, F16s.

The military build, US military buildup in the region is very significant.

And I don't think Donald Trump is moving all those assets to the region just in order to bluff.

And if there's not going to be any real tangible concession from the Iranians.

All of those assets will be used pretty soon.

Okay, so you believe that this is not going to end diplomatically, that there will be some kind of military escalation.

So how much time do you think that the Iranians have?

First, I don't know if there's going to be a military action or not.

I'm just saying that at the moment, we have no evidence to show that the Iranians have put something tangible on the table.

I heard it from at least three different US Officials that they expected the Iranians to come to the meeting today with something real.

And at least at the moment, again, the talks ended an hour ago.

I have no evidence that such tangible concession was put on the table by the Iranians.

And if that's really the case, then I think the military option is becoming more and more likely.

And I don't think we're talking about a long time here.

I think this is something that could happen pretty soon.

When Trump makes comments like regime change in Iran may be the best thing that could happen.

I mean, a lot of people listening to him say that over here at least would say that that is just sort of psychological, you know, warfare, just sort of really trying to make the Iranians nervous.

But how are those comments being viewed, based on your understanding by the Iranian regime itself?

So I think there's only one person that matters, and this is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

I think that I'm not sure he is really calculating well enough what Donald Trump might do.

Trump himself talks about the Maduro operation all the time.

But I think that if there is going to be some kind of US Military operation, when Trump is talking about both on Maduro and the Maduro comparison and the issue of regime change, what I understand from it is that any US Military operation will aim at taking out the Iranian supreme leader.