Iran slams US after Trump nuclear weapons comment

Iran has hit out at the US for causing tensions after President Donald Trump said during his Japan visit that his government was not seeking regime change and that he would welcome talks with Tehran.

Reacting to the US President's statement, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that the Trump administration was hurting the Iranian people and causing tension in the region.

Zarif also denied Iran was seeking nuclear weapons saying that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons in 2003 and has reiterated it several times since.

Iran is locked in a tense standoff with the US which has beefed up its military presence



in the Middle East in response to alleged threats from the Islamic republic.

Earlier, Zarif called a deployment of extra US troops to the region was very dangerous and a threat to international peace and security. It follows a US decision earlier this month to send an aircraft carrier strike force and B-52 bombers in a show of force.

Washington says the latest reinforcements are in response to a series of recent attacks including a rocket launched into the Green Zone in Baghdad, explosive devices that damaged four tankers near the entrance to the Gulf, and drone strikes by Yemeni rebels on a key Saudi oil pipeline. Iran denies any involvement in the attacks.