US president says ‘big force going towards Iran’, but he would ‘rather not see anything happen’ as tension with Tehran ratchets up.

United States President Donald Trump said a US naval “armada” was heading towards the Gulf region, with Iran being the focus, as officials said an aircraft carrier strike group and other assets would arrive in the Middle East in the coming days.

“We’re watching Iran,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Thursday as he flew back from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“We have a big force going towards Iran,” Trump said.

“I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely,” he said.

“And maybe we won’t have to use it … we have a lot of ships going that direction, just in case, we have a big flotilla going in that direction, and we’ll see what happens,” he added.

Trump’s announcement on the US naval buildup comes after he appeared to back-pedal last week on his threats of military action against Iran after, he said, receiving assurances that no executions of protesters would be carried out by Tehran.

Trump’s confirmation of continuing military preparations in the region follows after US media reports in the past week that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its strike group of vessels were ordered to divert from manoeuvres in the South China Sea to the Middle East.

Speaking on Thursday, Trump reiterated that his earlier threats to use force against Tehran had stopped authorities in Iran from executing more than 800 protesters, and he again said he was open to talking with the country’s leadership.

Iranian officials have denied plans to execute people who had taken part in the widespread antigovernment protests that began in late December and which Iranian state media said left 3,117 people dead, including 2,427 civilians and members of the security forces.

Speaking to US broadcaster CNBC on Wednesday, Trump said he hoped there would not be further US military action against Iran, but also said the US would act if Tehran resumed its nuclear programme.

“They can’t do the ​nuclear,” Trump told CNBC in an interview in Davos.

“If they do it, it’s going to happen again,” the president said, referring to US air ‌strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025 when Washington joined Israel’s 12-day war on the country.

Washington last ordered a major military build-up in the Middle East in advance of ‍its attacks in June, and officials later boasted about how it had kept its intention to strike Tehran’s nuclear programme a secret at the time.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal newspaper on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned the US that Tehran will be “firing back with everything we have” if attacked.

“Our powerful armed forces have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack,” the minister wrote.

Araghchi said his warning was not a threat, “but a reality I feel I need to convey explicitly, because as a diplomat and a veteran, I abhor war”.

“An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to peddle to the White House,” he said.

“It will certainly engulf the wider region and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe,” he added.

The United States has issued a warning to Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council, writing that it would consider action should the temporary governing body compromise the Caribbean nation’s security.

In a sternly worded social media post on Thursday, the US embassy in Haiti maintained that its goal was the “establishment of baseline security and stability”.

“The US would regard any effort to change the composition of the government by the non-elected Transitional Presidential Council at this late stage in its tenure (set to expire on February 7) to be an effort to undermine that objective,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau wrote.

He added that the US would respond if such changes to the council were to occur. His statement, however, failed to identify the precise circumstances that prompted the warning.

“The US would consider anyone supporting such a disruptive step favoring the gangs to be acting contrary to the interests of the United States, the region, and the Haitian people and will act accordingly,” Landau said.

Haiti continues to struggle with the ravages of widespread gang violence, instability and corruption in its government.

But the US threat is likely to send shudders throughout the region, particularly in the aftermath of the January 3 attack on Venezuela.

The administration of President Donald Trump has repeatedly advanced the notion that the entire Western Hemisphere falls under its sphere of influence, as part of a policy it dubbed the “Donroe Doctrine”, a riff on the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine.

Trump has referenced that premise to justify the use of US military force to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, as well as to claim the US needs to control Greenland.

A political crisis

Located some 11,000 kilometres (800 miles) southeast of the US, Haiti has long struggled with instability. It is considered the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, as it continues to suffer from the legacy of foreign intervention, dictatorship and natural disasters.

But in 2021, the country faced a new crisis when President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in his home in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Federal elections have not been held since, leading to a crisis of confidence in the government. The last federally elected officials saw their terms expire in 2023.

Experts say the lack of leadership has allowed Haiti’s gangs to flourish, and since the Moise assassination, they have taken control of vast stretches of the territory, including up to 90 percent of the capital.

The resulting violence has forced more than 1.4 million Haitians from their homes. Millions more suffer from food insecurity, as thoroughfares are often restricted by gang-led roadblocks.

This week, a United Nations report found that, between January and November of last year, an estimated 8,100 people were killed in the violence. That marks an escalation from 2024, when the yearly total was 5,600.

But efforts have been made to restore the country’s stability. The Transitional Presidential Council was designed as a temporary governing structure to set the framework for new federal elections. Established in 2024, it has nine members who rotate to serve as chair.

Very quickly, however, the council faced criticism for its membership – largely selected from the country’s business and political elite – and allegations of corruption swirled. Infighting has also broken out among the members.

The US too has added to the tensions on the council. In November, it announced visa restrictions against an unnamed government official, later identified in the media as one of the council’s members, economist Fritz Alphonse Jean.

While the council had been slated to hold tiered elections starting last November, it failed to meet that benchmark, and the first vote has been postponed to August.

In the meantime, the council’s mandate is set to dissolve on February 7, and the panel’s future remains unclear.

UN calls for action

In this week’s report on Haiti, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres linked Haiti’s ongoing humanitarian crisis to the vacuum in its government.

“Violence has intensified and expanded geographically, exacerbating food insecurity and instability, as transitional governance arrangements near expiry and overdue elections remain urgent,” Guterres said.

Another UN representative – Carlos Ruiz-Massieu, who leads the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) – was also emphatic about the immediate need for transparent democratic processes and unified governance.

“Let us be clear: the country no longer has time to waste on prolonged internal struggles,” he said.

Still, in a speech on Wednesday to the UN Security Council, Ruiz-Massieu added that there have been “encouraging” signs ahead of this year’s scheduled elections. He applauded efforts to increase voter registration, including in Haiti’s diaspora, and encourage political participation among women.

But Ruiz-Massieu underscored that security concerns, including gang violence, could impede the democratic process, and that there was more work to be done before elections could be held.

“Achieving this goal will require sustained coordination among relevant institutions, predictable financing of the electoral process and security conditions that allow all voters and candidates to participate without fear,” he said.

The UN also signalled it would bolster its multinational security support mission in Haiti with more troops later this year.

Three people have died and another injured after a shooting in a small town in New South Wales, Australia, police have said.

Emergency services were called to a residential area in Lake Cargelligo at about 16:40 local time (05:40 GMT).

The suspect is still on the run and is believed to have fled in a vehicle, NSW police confirmed.

A man and woman were found shot dead in a vehicle, a second shooting soon afterwards killed a woman and left a man in a “critical condition” in hospital, police said.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the incident was a suspected domestic violence attack.

Andrew Holland, NSW police assistant commissioner, declined to comment on the relationship between the gunman and the victims.

The public has been urged to remain indoors and multiple crime scenes have been established, he told reporters.

“Any death in a small country town is confronting, but again, a scene where you have people shot by firearms is obviously going to make people very, very tense and very concerned,” said Holland.

“The scene faced by the emergency services officers at that time would have been horrendous.”

Lake Cargelligo is located in the centre of New South Wales and has a population of about 1,500 people.

The incident comes after last month’s mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach which killed 15 people.