JAKARTA - US President Donald Trump said Iran was trying to restart its nuclear program after the US attack last summer.
"They're trying to get back to that location. They can't even get close to it, it's totally destroyed," Trump said in an interview with NBC News.
"However, they are thinking of starting new locations in other parts of the country. We know about it. I said, 'If you do that, we will do very bad things to you'," he continued.
Trump said this amid preparations by Iran and the US to hold talks on Tehran's nuclear program on Friday in the capital of Oman, Muscat.
The talks were initially in doubt earlier this week, but a White House official confirmed to Anadolu that the talks would take place.
Iran also said negotiations would continue, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi saying talks would begin Friday morning.
Previously, US media Axios reported that Washington had told Tehran that it would not agree to demands to change the location or format of the talks scheduled for Friday.
"We told them the choice was this or nothing at all, and they said, 'Well, then nothing at all,'" Axios quoted an unnamed US official as saying.
Previously, Iranian media reported that Iran and the US were scheduled to hold indirect talks on Friday in Muscat with a focus on nuclear-related issues.
Before Muscat, Istanbul was proposed as a location for negotiations, following Turkey's success in helping to ease tensions between the two countries.
Axios quoted the official as saying that if Iran was willing to return to the original format of the negotiations, the US was ready to meet this week or next week.
However, Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency, citing a source, said Washington was trying to raise issues outside the nuclear framework, including defense issues.
The plan for the talks comes amid rising tensions between Washington and Tehran, triggered by the increased US military presence in the Persian Gulf as well as repeated military action threats by Trump.
In recent days, a number of countries have intervened and offered to mediate between Tehran and Washington to ease tensions.
The United States and its ally, Israel, accuse Iran of trying to produce nuclear weapons, while Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, including electricity generation.
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