The President of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian said the Islamic republic was not seeking a nuclear weapon as talks with the United States were due to begin in Switzerland on Thursday in a last-ditch bid to avert war.

The talks, mediated by Oman, follow a massive US military build-up in the region not seen in decades, with President Donald Trump threatening to strike Iran if a deal is not reached.

President Pezeshkian said, in a reference to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, stating that the Supreme Leader has stated that Iran would not purchase nuclear weapons at all.

While Iran has insisted the talks focus solely on its nuclear programme, the US wants Tehran’s missile programme and its support for militant groups in the region curtailed.

The developments follow a massive protest movement that rights groups say saw thousands of demonstrators calling for the end of the Islamic republic killed.

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Trump accused Iran of pursuing sinister nuclear ambitions, though Tehran has consistently insisted its programme is for civilian purposes.

President Trump also claimed Tehran had already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.

The two countries held talks earlier this month in Oman, which is mediating the negotiations, and gathered for a second round in Geneva last week.

A previous attempt at negotiations collapsed when Israel launched surprise strikes on Iran last June, beginning a 12-day war that Washington briefly joined to bomb Iranian nuclear sites.

In January, Tehran launched a mass crackdown on nationwide protests that have posed one of the greatest challenges to the Islamic republic since its inception.