Many Iranians are worried as the United States assembles its greatest military firepower in decades in the Middle East and the next round of talks in Geneva get closer. There is a belief that the talks on Thursday may give their country's theocracy its last chance to strike a deal with President Donald Trump. There is also a feeling of hopelessness in a country battered by decades of sanctions, heightened by Trump's 2018 decision to withdraw from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. Iranians also last month suffered through the bloodiest crackdown on dissent in the country's modern history, with security forces killing thousands of people and detaining tens of thousands more.

President Donald Trump says he decided to move a second aircraft carrier into the Middle East as he presses Iran to make a deal over its nuclear program. The USS Gerald R. Ford is being sent from the Caribbean Sea to the Mideast to join other warships and military assets that the U.S. has built up in the region. Trump told reporters Friday that "in case we don't make a deal, we'll need it." He says the carrier will be "leaving soon." Days ago, Trump suggested another round of talks with Iran was at hand. That didn't materialize as a top Iranian security officials visited Oman and Qatar this week and exchanged messages with the U.S. intermediaries.

The White House says talks between special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian officials are still planned after a Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that was approaching a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. U.S. Central Command said Tuesday the drone "aggressively approached" the aircraft carrier and kept flying toward it "despite de-escalatory measures taken by U.S. forces." The U.S. military says the shootdown occurred within hours of another incident in which Iranian forces harassed a U.S.-flagged merchant vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's president says he's instructed his foreign minister to pursue fair negotiations with the U.S. The White House says President Donald Trump wants to "pursue diplomacy first."

A U.S. official says Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is beefing up the Navy warship presence in the Middle East, ordering two aircraft carriers to be there next month as the U.S. increases strikes on Yemen-based Houthi rebels. It's the second time in six months the U.S. has kept two carrier strike groups in that region, up from one. The Norfolk, Virginia-based USS Harry S. Truman will be in the Middle East for at least an additional month. The USS Carl Vinson was in the Pacific and had been slated to head home to San Diego in three weeks but will head toward the Middle East.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower may be one of the oldest aircraft carriers in the U.S. Navy, but it's still fighting — despite repeated false claims by Yemen's Houthi rebels. The Houthis and online accounts supporting them repeatedly have alleged they hit or even sank the carrier in the Red Sea. The carrier leads the U.S. response to the rebels' targeting of commercial vessels and warships in the crucial waterway — attacks that began as a show solidarity with Hamas in its war with Israel. The Eisenhower's captain is creatively striking back on social media to counter the misinformation as the Navy faces its most intense combat since World War II.