Trump disclosed that he has maintained frequent communication with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent days. The president emphasized his administration's position that Iran must not acquire nuclear weapons capabilities while leaving the door open for future negotiations.

"Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb and we are hoping to get back to the negotiating table. We will see. There are several people in leadership that will not be coming back," Trump stated during the interview.

The Trump administration informed at least one significant Middle Eastern partner about the impending Israeli operation while clarifying that the US played no operational role in the strikes. Administration officials have confirmed that several senior Iranian officials perished in the Israeli bombardment.

Trump announced plans to convene a National Security Council meeting Friday morning, with the White House confirming the session. The president had previously indicated that an Israeli strike on Iran "could very well happen" while maintaining his preference for peaceful resolution.

US Central Command has elevated its alert status as Trump monitors potential Iranian retaliation, with the president affirming America's readiness to defend both itself and Israel should Iran respond. The administration has recently replenished Israel's Iron Dome missile inventory as tensions escalated.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized American non-involvement in the strikes, stating that Israel acted independently for self-defense purposes. "We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region," Rubio declared in an official statement.

"Let me be clear: Iran should not target US interests or personnel," Rubio added.

Iranian armed forces representatives threatened that Israel and the US would face severe consequences for the attack, accusing Washington of providing operational support despite American denials,. An Israeli official informed public broadcaster Kan that coordination with Washington had occurred regarding the Iran operation.

The State Department issued immediate guidance directing all US government personnel in Israel and their families to "shelter in place until further notice." Military planners are preparing for various contingencies across the Middle East, including potential civilian evacuation scenarios, a US official confirmed to Reuters.

Financial markets reacted sharply to the developments, with Asian trading sessions experiencing significant declines led by US futures selloff. Oil prices surged as investors sought refuge in traditional safe-haven assets including gold and the Swiss franc.

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Despite declarations from both Tehran and Washington favoring diplomatic solutions to the decades-old nuclear standoff, Reuters reports the two nations remain fundamentally divided on several non-negotiable conditions that diplomats must navigate to forge a renewed nuclear agreement and prevent possible military confrontation.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and United States Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff will conduct the fourth round of discussions in Muscat through Omani intermediaries, according to Reuters, even as Washington publicly maintains a hardline stance that Iranian officials have suggested could undermine negotiation efforts.

Before departing for the Omani capital, Araqchi informed Iranian state TV that "Iran has well-known positions based on clear principles... We hope to reach a decisive stance in Sunday's meeting." He further noted that Iran's technical team was already positioned in Oman and "will be consulted if necessary," Reuters reported.

Witkoff articulated Washington's position to Breitbart News on Thursday, establishing a clear boundary: "No enrichment. That means dismantlement, no weaponization," which would necessitate completely dismantling Iran's nuclear installations at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan, as detailed by Reuters.

"If they are not productive on Sunday, then they won't continue and we'll have to take a different route," Witkoff stated regarding the negotiations.

Trump, who has previously threatened military action against Iran should diplomatic channels fail, will embark on a regional tour including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates from May 13-16. Responding to Witkoff's statements, Araqchi declared Saturday that Iran would not surrender its nuclear rights, including uranium enrichment capabilities.

The Islamic Republic remains open to discussing certain limitations on its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief, Reuters reported citing Iranian officials, but eliminating its enrichment program or relinquishing its stockpile of enriched uranium represents "Iran's red lines that could not be compromised" during negotiations.

A high-ranking Iranian official with close ties to the negotiating team told Reuters that American demands for "zero enrichment and dismantling Iran's nuclear sites would not help in progressing the negotiations," speaking on condition of anonymity.

"What the US says publicly differs from what is said in negotiations," the official remarked to Reuters, adding that the situation would become clearer following Sunday's talks, originally scheduled for May 3 in Rome but postponed due to what Oman described as "logistical reasons."

Additionally, Iran has categorically rejected discussing its ballistic missile program, while its religious leadership insists on ironclad guarantees that Trump would not abandon a nuclear agreement again, Reuters reported.

Trump, who reinstated a "maximum pressure" campaign against Tehran since February, withdrew from Iran's 2015 nuclear agreement with six world powers during his first term in 2018 and reimposed severe sanctions that have devastated Iran's economy, according to Reuters.

Iran, consistently maintaining its nuclear program serves peaceful purposes, has violated the 2015 agreement's nuclear restrictions since 2019, including "dramatically" accelerating uranium enrichment to levels reaching 60% purity, approaching the approximately 90% threshold considered weapons-grade, according to the UN nuclear watchdog, Reuters reported.

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The United States on Thursday blacklisted three entities linked to efforts to bolster Iran's military capabilities.

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The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced it added Wavelet Electronics, Comtel Technology Limited and HSJ Electronics to its list of bodies guilty of "actions contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States."

Washington accused the companies of attempts to "supply US-origin items that could provide material support to Iran's advanced conventional weapons and missile programs."

Their inclusion on the list prevents them from exporting, re-exporting or conducting in-country equipment transfers.

Iran criticized the measure as indicating a "lack of goodwill" as talks were ongoing in the Austrian capital of Vienna on rescuing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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With the Vienna talks on a new Iran nuclear deal at an impasse, the Islamic Republic is making preparations to fire a ballistic missile into space.

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The likely blast off at Iran's Imam Khomeini Spaceport comes as Iranian state media has offered a list of upcoming planned satellite launches in the works for the Islamic Republic's civilian space program, which has been beset by a series of failed launches. Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard runs its own parallel program that successfully put a satellite into orbit last year.

But all this fits into a renewed focus on space by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, said Jeffrey Lewis, an expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies who studies Tehran's program. With Iran's former President Hassan Rouhani who shepherded the nuclear deal out of office, concerns about alienating the talks with launches that the US asserts aids Tehran's ballistic missile program likely have faded.

"They're not walking on eggshells," Lewis said. "I think Raisi's people have a new balance in mind."

Iranian state media did not acknowledge the activity at the spaceport and Iran's mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment. The US military, which tracks space launches, did not respond to requests for comment.

Satellite images taken Saturday by Planet Labs Inc. obtained by The Associated Press show activity at the spaceport in the desert plains of Iran's rural Semnan province, some 240 kilometers (150 miles) southeast of Tehran.

A support vehicle stood parked alongside a massive white gantry that typically houses a rocket on the launch pad. That support vehicle has appeared in other satellite photos at the site just ahead of a launch. Also visible is a hydraulic crane with a railed platform, also seen before previous launches and likely used to service the rocket.

Other satellite images in recent days at the spaceport have shown an increase in the number of cars at the facility, another sign of heightened activity that typically precedes a launch. A building also believed to be the "checkout" facility for a rocket has seen increased activity as well, Lewis said.

Meanwhile, Iran said on Sunday that European countries had failed to offer constructive proposals to help to revive a 2015 nuclear deal, after Britain said there was still time for Tehran to save it but that this was the last chance.

Talks have resumed in Vienna to try to revive the nuclear pact, with both sides trying to gauge the prospects of success after the latest exchanges in the stop-start negotiations.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said earlier on Sunday: "This is the last chance for Iran to come to the negotiating table with a serious resolution to this issue, which has to be agreeing the terms of the JCPOA [nuclear accord]."

Conducting a missile launch amid the Vienna talks fits the hard-line posture struck by Tehran's negotiators, who already described six previous rounds of diplomacy as a "draft," exasperating Western nations. Germany's new foreign minister has gone as far as to warn that "time is running out for us at this point."

However, on Sunday, Iran's chief negotiator, Ali Bakri Kani, reported progress on an agenda for talks with global powers over its nuclear program, as Britain said the Vienna negotiations were Tehran's "last chance."

"The two parties are at the point of agreeing on the matters which should be on the agenda," Tehran's chief negotiator Bakri Kani told the official IRNA news agency.

"It's a positive and important evolution since, at the start, they weren't even in agreement on the issues to negotiate," he said.

i24NEWS and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday the negotiating process with Iran to revive a 2015 nuclear deal could not go on indefinitely, and that the ball is in Tehran's court.

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Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington to revive the nuclear pact, from which then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States in 2018, adjourned on June 20, two days after the hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi was elected president of the Islamic Republic. Raisi takes office on Aug. 5.

Parties involved in the negotiations, which also include China, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union, have yet to say when they might resume.

"We are committed to diplomacy, but this process cannot go on indefinitely," said Blinken, addressing a news conference in Kuwait.

"At some point the gains achieved by the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) cannot be fully recovered by a return to the JCPOA if Iran continues the activities that it's undertaken with regard to its nuclear program," he said.

"We have clearly demonstrated our good faith and desire to return to mutual compliance with the nuclear agreement...The ball remains in Iran's court and we will see if they're prepared to make the decisions necessary to come back into compliance."

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on Iran's state matters, declared on Wednesday that Tehran would not accept Washington's "stubborn" demands in nuclear talks and again flatly rejected adding any other issues to the deal.

Gulf Arab states have asked to be included in the negotiations, and for any deal to address what they call Iran's ballistic missile program and destabilizing behavior in the region.

Blinken also said he had discussed during his visit to Kuwait, where he met with the ruling emir, the subject of relocating Afghan interpreters.

Many Afghans who worked with NATO forces fear reprisals from Islamist Taliban insurgents as US troops depart.

The United States uses several military bases in Kuwait, with which it has strong relations after leading a coalition that ended Iraq's 1990-91 occupation of the Gulf state.

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The administration of US President Joe Biden demanded that Israel cut down on the "chatter" concerning the alleged attacks against Iran's nuclear facilities, Channel 12 News reported on Friday.

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The unsourced report described the US message as "resolute," using a Hebrew word that can also mean "aggressive," and said that it was relayed through "multiple channels."

The leaks by Israeli officials concerning sabotage operations against Tehran's nuclear program undermine the US effort to bring Iran back to the negotiating table, and "embarrass" American diplomats, US officials told Jerusalem, according to the report.

Earlier this week Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif openly accused Israel of launching an attack on the Natanz nuclear complex, where a power outage occurred on Sunday, described as an act of "terrorism" by Tehran.

Citing "Western intelligence officials," the New York Times attributed the attack to Israel.

Several Israeli officials, including former Mossad chief Danny Yatom, have subsequently expressed concerns about what they called a "leak" to the NYT concerning Israel's involvement in the blackout at Natanz.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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