Iran says progress made towards US talks

One killed in gas leak blast in Bandar Abbas

TEHRAN:

Iran's top security official said Saturday that progress had been made towards negotiations with the United States, even as the Islamic republic's army chief warned Washington against launching military strikes.

Washington has deployed a naval battle group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier off Iran's shores, after Trump threatened to intervene in the wake of a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests.

The arrival of the flotilla has raised fears of a direct confrontation with Iran, which has warned it would respond with missile strikes on US bases, ships and allies — notably Israel — in the event of an attack.

But Trump has said he believes Iran will prefer to seal a deal over its nuclear and missile programmes rather than face American military action — and Tehran has said it is ready for nuclear talks if its missiles and defence capabilities are not on the agenda.

"Contrary to the hype of the contrived media war, structural arrangements for negotiations are progressing," said Ali Larijani, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, a day after the Kremlin said he held talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Iranian army chief Amir Hatami earlier warned the US and Israel against any attack, saying his forces were "at full defensive and military readiness" to respond.

"If the enemy makes a mistake, without a doubt it will endanger its own security, the security of the region, and the security of the Zionist regime," Hatami said, according to official news agency IRNA.

He said Iran's nuclear technology and expertise "cannot be eliminated".

With tensions heightened, Iranian authorities rushed to deny that several incidents on Saturday were linked to any attack or sabotage, including an explosion in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas that local firefighters said was caused by a gas leak.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) denied that any of the buildings belonging to its naval forces had been targeted, according to a statement carried by the Fars news agency.

The Tasnim agency on Saturday also denied "assassination rumours" surrounding the commander of the Guards' navy Alireza Tangsiri.