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U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff along with Jared Kushner and Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), visited the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea on a scheduled deployment Saturday.
The visit comes amid tensions with Iran as Witkoff said the service members were “keeping us safe and upholding President Trump’s message of peace through strength,” and a day after the U.S. and Iran held talks in Oman to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.
“We thanked the sailors and Marines, observed live flight operations, and spoke with the pilot who downed an Iranian drone that approached the carrier without clear intent,” Witkoff wrote on X. “Proud to stand with the men and women who defend our interests, deter our adversaries, and show the world what American readiness and resolve look like, on watch every day.”
The aircraft carrier left San Diego in November for the Indo-Pacific region and moved to the Middle East in January.
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Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner flew to the USS Lincoln on Saturday in the Arabian Sea. (CENTCOM/X)
“I join the American people in expressing our incredible pride in the Sailors and Marines of the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group,” Cooper told the service members. “Their dedication to the mission and professionalism are on full display here in the Middle East as they demonstrate U.S. military readiness and strength.”
This comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he would meet with President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to discuss Iran.
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Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner flew out to the USS Lincoln with Adam Cooper on Saturday, according to officials. (CENTCOM/X)
“The prime minister believes that all negotiations must include limiting ballistic missiles, and ending support for the Iranian axis,” Netanyahu’s office said, referring to Tehran’s support for groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.
The two leaders last met in September.
Trump described Friday’s Oman talks, which included Witkoff and Kushner, as “very good.”
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner greeting Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Hamad Al Busaidi ahead of U.S.-Iran talks, in Muscat, the capital of Oman, on Friday. (Oman Foreign Ministry/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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“Iran looks like it wants to make a deal very badly,” the president told reporters Friday aboard Air Force One en route to Mar-a-Lago. “We have to see what that deal is.”