The United States rules out allowing Iran to enrich uranium as part of the nuclear deal.

President Donald Trump warned Monday that the United States will not authorize " any uranium enrichment " by Iran as part of "a potential deal," amid ongoing negotiations between the two countries over Iran's nuclear program.

The United States and Iran, which have been at odds for four decades and have no diplomatic relations, began negotiations with Oman as mediator on April 12.

These are the first such negotiations since Washington withdrew in 2018, during Trump's first term (2017-2021), from the international agreement reached three years earlier between Tehran and major powers to oversee Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

The major Western powers and Israel, considered by experts to be the only country with nuclear weapons in the Middle East, have long accused Tehran of trying to acquire nuclear weapons.

Iran denies this and insists that its nuclear program is solely for civilian purposes.

"We will not allow any uranium enrichment!" as part of "a potential deal," Trump wrote on his Truth Social network after the news platform Axios revealed that the latest US proposal authorizes it in limited quantities.

On Saturday, Iran said it had received "elements" of a US proposal at the end of five rounds of negotiations and stated it would respond to it.

"Guarantees"

But the Islamic Republic on Monday ruled out any nuclear deal with the United States that would deprive it of its "peaceful" uranium enrichment activities and urged Washington to provide "guarantees" that it will lift the sanctions against it.

"We want assurances that the sanctions will actually be lifted," said Iranian foreign minister Esmail Baqai .

"If the goal is to deprive Iran of its peaceful activities, then it is clear that no agreement will be reached," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said at a joint conference in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelatty .

The Iranian foreign minister insisted that "Iran has a peaceful nuclear program."

Araqchi met in Cairo with Abelatty and the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Argentine Rafael Grossi.

This meeting comes the day after the release of a UN agency report showing that Iran has ramped up its production of 60% enriched uranium, a level close to the 90% required for nuclear weapons.

"There is a need for greater transparency—this is very, very clear—in Iran, and nothing will bring us this confidence (other than) full explanations of a range of activities," Grossi said before meeting with Araqchi.

Grossi defended the report, calling it "impartial." "We tell things as they are, without a political agenda," he declared.

Iran, for its part, rejected the IAEA's findings, calling them a "political" maneuver based on "unreliable and misleading" information.

Both Araghchi and Grossi met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who called for "a de-escalation to prevent the situation from spiraling into an open regional war."