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Iran’s top security official on Saturday said Tehran was making progress towards possible negotiations with the United States, signalling an effort to avoid military confrontation even as tensions remain high and Washington ramps up pressure in the region.
“Contrary to the hype of the contrived media war, structural arrangements for negotiations are progressing,” Ali Larijani, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said in a post on X. His remarks came a day after the Kremlin said Larijani had held talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and as US President Donald Trump predicted Iran would ultimately seek a deal to avert American military action.
Trump, however, struck a far more confrontational note hours later. Amid
ongoing tensions over a possible US intervention, he posted a video on Saturday that appeared to show a heavy police deployment in Tehran.
“HAPPENING NOW – Tehran. The IRGC are in panic mode. Fully sh*tting their pants,” read the caption accompanying the video. News18 could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage.
The post came as Washington deployed a naval battle group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln off Iran’s shores, fuelling fears of a direct confrontation. Iran has warned it would respond with missile strikes on US bases, ships and allies, including Israel, if attacked.
برخلاف فضاسازیِ جنگ رسانهای تصنعی، شکلگیری ساختاری برای #مذاکرات در حال پیشرفت است.
— Ali Larijani | علی لاریجانی (@alilarijani_ir) January 31, 2026
Despite the escalation, Trump has said he believes Tehran would prefer negotiations over conflict, particularly on its nuclear and missile programmes. Iran, for its part, has said it is open to nuclear talks provided its missile and defence capabilities are not placed on the agenda.
Meanwhile, Iranian authorities reported an explosion at a residential building in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas on Saturday, but said the incident was caused by a gas leak and was not linked to any attack or sabotage.
State television said the blast destroyed parts of an eight-storey building on Moallem Boulevard, damaging vehicles and nearby shops. Local officials said a four-year-old girl was killed and 14 others were hospitalised. State-run media moved quickly to rule out any connection to the heightened regional tensions, as authorities sought to calm speculation.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also sought to lower the temperature, saying Tehran was not seeking war with Washington. According to a statement from the Iranian presidency, Pezeshkian told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a phone call that any conflict would harm both sides and the wider region.
Marked in yellow in the Western Hemisphere, you have the United States.
Several oceans away, on the other side of the planet, Iran's borders are marked in yellow.
The little circle in red is the Strait of Hormuz.
Operating off our shores, the US military is now attempting to… pic.twitter.com/3KlHdHSYHc
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) January 31, 2026
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has never sought, and in no way seeks, war and it is firmly convinced that a war would be in the interest of neither Iran, nor the United States, nor the region,” Pezeshkian said.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, meanwhile, sharply criticised US military activity near Iran, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global energy corridor.
In a post on X, Araghchi accused the US military of attempting to dictate how Iran’s armed forces conduct drills in their own territorial waters, calling the situation “absurd”. He said the presence of outside forces in the Persian Gulf had historically promoted escalation rather than de-escalation, while insisting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps remained a stabilising force in the region.
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