By Parisa Hafezi
DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran will not abandon its right to uranium enrichment because of mounting frictions in the region, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Thursday, adding that a “friendly” regional country had alerted Tehran over a potential military strike by Israel.
The official said the tensions were intended to “influence Tehran to change its position about its nuclear rights” during talks with the United States on Sunday in Oman.
He did not disclose the name of the regional country that warned Iran about the Israeli attack.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday U.S. personnel were being moved out of the Middle East because it could become a dangerous place, adding that the United States would not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
Tehran and Washington will hold a new round of talks, mediated by Omani officials, in Muscat to resolve a decades-long standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“We don’t want tensions and prefer diplomacy to resolve the (nuclear) issue, but our armed forces are fully ready to respond to any military strike,” the Iranian official said.
After five rounds of discussions between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, several obstacles remain.
They include Iran’s rejection of a U.S. demand that Tehran commit to scrapping uranium enrichment. Iran wants a lifting of U.S. sanctions imposed on the country since 2018 after Trump ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six powers during his first term.
On Sunday’s meeting in Oman’s capital, Iran is expected to share a counterproposal to a U.S. offer to bridge the gaps.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has dismissed the U.S. proposal as against Iran’s interests, pledging to continue enrichment on Iranian soil, which Western powers view as a potential pathway to building nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes.
(Writing by Parisa Hafezi, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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