While Trump pressures Iran with

As the Trump administration continues to prepare military options As for attacks in Iran, U.S. allies in the Middle East, including Turkey, Oman and Qatar, are trying to head off that possibility by mediating diplomatic talks, several regional officials told News themezone.

But at this point, the opportunity for direct diplomacy between the United States and Iran to discuss the regime’s policies nuclear program and ballistic missile capability has not gained ground, according to three regional officials who spoke to News themezone on condition of anonymity so they could speak freely.

The head of Israeli military intelligence, Gen. Shlomi Binder, was in Washington earlier this week for meetings at the Pentagon, the CIA and the White House, a source familiar with his plans told News themezone. Axios was the first to confirm the Israeli visit, which had not been announced by the Trump administration. Separately, the Saudi Defense Minister is scheduled to be in Washington, DC, this week for meetings, according to a source familiar with his schedule.

In Iran, thousands of protesters are believed to have been killed and many more detained, as Iranian authorities have carried out a brutal crackdown on recent demonstrations caused by economic difficulties and political repression. An almost complete internet and communications closure It has been going on for more than two weeks now, and recently only a small number of Iranians managed to connect.

In a social media post on Wednesday, President Trump said: “massive army” was headed toward Iran, urging its government to “come to the table.” Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a post shortly afterward that Iran’s security forces “are prepared, with their finger on the trigger, to respond immediately and powerfully to ANY aggression against our beloved land, air and sea.”

But some of the regional allies such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have explicitly made it known that their airspace and territory cannot be used to launch attacks against the Islamic Republic. According to a readout of a Wednesday call between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, the Saudi leader said he had explicitly prohibited “any party” from using the Kingdom to attack Iran. Similarly, the United Arab Emirates pledged not to allow its waters, airspace or territory to be used and said it would not provide logistical support for an attack on Iran.

Recent US intelligence assessments indicate that the Iranian government is in its weakest position in decades: the most vulnerable since the 1979 revolution that brought previously exiled Ayatollah Khomeini back to Iran on February 1.

The Iranian foreign minister is scheduled to be in Türkiye on Friday for diplomatic meetings. Iran is skeptical of the diplomatic gestures and doubts that the US offers are genuine, according to multiple diplomatic officials in the region. That skepticism is based in part on what happened last June when the Trump administration decided to join Israel’s bombing campaign against Iranian nuclear infrastructureeven though diplomatic talks were scheduled.

In recent weeks, Trump has ordered a buildup of military forces in the Middle East. An additional destroyer and the Lincoln Carrier Strike Group arrived in the region this week. The carrier strike group includes the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, with its fighter squadrons and three escorting destroyers. This deployment adds to the two destroyers and three littoral combat ships that were already in the area, which is under the central command of the United States.

Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of a US attack on Iran, but it currently appears unclear what the targets would be or whether the approach would be the type of decapitation strikes used to aid regime change.

While the president had initially publicly threatened military action to deter the regime from continuing its brutal repression, protests have dwindled dramatically without such action. The Trump administration is seeking a diplomatic deal that instead addresses Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missile capabilities.

Speaking to News themezone Thursday night on the red carpet at the premiere of “Melania,” the documentary that offers an inside look at first lady Melania Trump’s life in the days after her husband’s 2024 election victory, Trump said he “has had” conversations with Iran in recent days and “I’m planning” to have more.

Trump said that, in those conversations, “he told them two things. Number one, no nuclear weapons. And number two, to stop killing protesters. They are killing thousands.”

Trump also reiterated: “We have a lot of very large, very powerful ships sailing toward Iran right now. And it would be great if we didn’t have to use them.”

In testimony Wednesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State Marco Rubio he could not answer questions about who would take power if Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the regime fell. He said there would be “hope that there would be some ability to have someone within their systems” who could work constructively toward a transition.

Rubio described Iran’s regime as “weaker than ever” and its economy “in collapse.” But he downplayed the likelihood that the regime could be overthrown as a result of the recent wave of popular protests across the country.

He suggested that Iranian authorities could have controlled the country with their brutal crackdown on protesters.

“I think regimes, including Iran’s, have learned that when you start shooting people in the head with snipers, it’s effective,” Rubio said.

Earlier this month, a source inside Iran told News themezone that activist groups believed that the death toll reached at least 12,000, and possibly as many as 20,000, according to reports from medical officials across Iran. News themezone has not been able to independently verify these figures.

Rubio told Congress that the United States currently has between 30,000 and 40,000 American troops stationed at eight or nine facilities in the Middle East. He characterized the U.S. military buildup as defensive in nature, noting that all such U.S. facilities are at risk of an Iranian attack using a short-term ballistic missile or a one-way UAV or drone.