Iran is approaching weekend talks with the United States over its nuclear program warily with little confidence in progress and deep suspicions of US intentions, Iranian officials said on Tuesday, with one official saying Washington’s demands are “unacceptable” to Tehran.

The talks were announced on Monday by US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military action if it does not agree to a deal since his return to the White House in January.

Iranian officials said that many of Trump’s demands would be non-starters.

Iran is approaching weekend talks with the United States over its nuclear program warily with little confidence in progress and deep suspicions of US intentions, Iranian officials said on Tuesday, with one official saying Washington’s demands are “unacceptable” to Tehran.

The talks were announced on Monday by US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military action if it does not agree to a deal since his return to the White House in January.

Iranian officials said that many of Trump’s demands would be non-starters.

“Trump wants a new deal: end Iran’s regional influence, dismantle its nuclear program, and halt its missile work. These are unacceptable to Tehran. Our nuclear program cannot be dismantled,” a senior Iranian official told Reuters.

“Our defense is non-negotiable. How can Tehran disarm when Israel has nuclear warheads? Who protects us if Israel or others strike?” said another official.

Trump has said the talks on Saturday in Oman will be direct, but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi repeated on Tuesday Tehran’s position that they should be indirect, citing what he called US pressure and threats.

“Indirect negotiations can guarantee a genuine and effective dialogue,” he told Iranian state news agency IRNA.

Araghchi said the talks would be led by him and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, mediated by Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi.

In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post, Araghchi reiterated that a deal would be possible if the US showed goodwill while also warning against a military strike, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday would be “inevitable” if US-Iran talks drag on.

“To move forward today, we first need to agree that there can be no ‘military option,’ let alone a ‘military solution,'” Araghchi wrote. “The proud Iranian nation, whose strength my government relies on for real deterrence, will never accept coercion and imposition.”

Pointing to the US leader’s push to end the Ukraine conflict, Araghchi said: “We cannot imagine President Trump wanting to become another US president mired in a catastrophic war in the Middle East — a conflict that would quickly extend across the region and cost exponentially more than the trillions of taxpayer dollars that his predecessors burned in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Tehran would want to see concrete gestures from the United States before any face-to-face talks between Iranian and US officials, Iranian and regional sources said.

“The Iranians told us that direct talks are possible, but there has to be a goodwill gesture. Lift some sanctions or unfreeze some money,” a regional diplomat said.

Russia backs either direct or indirect talks between Iran and the US as a chance to de-escalate tensions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, adding: “We know that certain contacts, direct and indirect, are planned in Oman.”

Russia’s lower house of parliament also ratified on Tuesday a 20-year strategic partnership with Iran, a sign of the deepening military ties between the two countries.

Efforts to settle the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, which it claims is purely for civilian use but which Western countries see as a precursor to an atomic bomb, have ebbed and flowed for more than 20 years without resolution.

Trump tore up a 2015 deal between Iran and six world powers — the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany — during his first term of office in 2018, and talks since then have stalled.

Israel, which has long regarded Iran as its biggest regional threat, defeated Tehran’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah last year. Netanyahu was with Trump on Monday when the US president announced Saturday’s talks.

The prime minister, who has repeatedly urged US governments to use strikes against Iran’s nuclear program, said a diplomatic solution would be good if it was done “in a full way,” citing the complete dismantling of Libya’s atomic program.

Iran has pushed back against Trump’s warnings of military action, saying it will not be cowed by threats.

The Islamic Republic has withstood repeated sanctions program over recent decades, and Iranian military leaders have previously threatened to cut off regional oil exports — a significant proportion of global energy supply.