Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Saturday that his country considers nuclear weapons "unacceptable", reiterating the country's longstanding position amid delicate negotiations with the United States.
"If the issue is nuclear weapons, yes, we too consider this type of weapon unacceptable," Araghchi, Iran's lead negotiator in the talks, said in a televised speech. Araghchi said Iran and the United States were in agreement on the matter.
The United States and Iran have held five rounds of talks to reach a new nuclear agreement to replace the 2015 JCPOA, an agreement signed with the United States and world powers that President Donald Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The two governments are at odds over Iran's uranium enrichment programme, which Washington has said must cease but which Tehran insists is its right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Nonetheless, Trump said Wednesday that an agreement was possible. "We're having some very good talks with Iran", he said.
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Trump also confirmed that he had warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against striking Iran's nuclear facilities, after reports that Israel had been preparing for such an attack and could launch one without warning the Trump administration in advance. Trump said an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear program would not be "appropriate right now".
Israel has repeatedly threatened military action after pummelling Iranian air defences during two exchanges of fire last year.
Trump has not ruled out military action but said he wants space to make a deal first, and has also said that Israel, and not the United States, would take the lead in any such strikes.