Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Tuesday the country’s military capabilities were off limits, ahead of a second round of talks with the United States on its nuclear programme.
“National security and defence and military power are among the red lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which cannot be discussed or negotiated under any circumstances,” Guards spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini said, quoted by state broadcaster IRIB.
Iran and the US will hold another round of talks in Muscat on Saturday, a week after top officials met in the Omani capital for the highest-level discussions since the 2015 nuclear deal collapsed.
President Donald Trump, who withdrew the US from the 2015 deal during his first term, has reinstated his “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran since returning to office in January.
In March, he sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling for nuclear talks and warning of possible military action if Tehran refused.
Trump addressed reporters on Monday regarding Iran, saying “I’ll solve that problem” and “that’s almost an easy one”.
The US leader also threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and called Iranian authorities “radicals” who should not possess nuclear weapons.