Iran rejects US 'myth' of nuclear weapons

Iran's most powerful cleric raised the ante on Sunday ahead of keynote negotiations over his country's nuclear programme by accusing America of creating a "myth" that Tehran wanted to build an atom bomb.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, said the United States had fabricated the issue to depict Iran as a threat while deflecting blame from its own activities and that of its chief ally, Israel, which he called "America's chained dog".

"They created the myth of nuclear weapons so they could say the Islamic Republic is a source of threat. No, the source of threat is America itself, with its unrestrained, destabilising interventions," he said in a televised speech before Iranian military commanders.

"The other side is methodically and shamelessly threatening us militarily ... even if they did not make these overt threats, we would have to be prepared."

The decade-long dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme has been fuelled by suspicions that it is geared to produce a bomb, which Israel says would threaten its own existence. Iran has long insisted that it is aimed at producing domestic energy.

Ayatollah Khamenei's comments appeared to represent a toughening of Iranian attitudes in preparation for the resumption this week of talks in Vienna between Iran and negotiators from six world powers.

The two sides are scheduled to meet on Wednesday and Thursday in an attempt to reach a definitive agreement that would build on this month's framework deal struck in the Swiss city of Lausanne.

The envisioned final deal anticipates a drastic scaling back of the Iranian nuclear in return for a lifting of crippling economic sanctions, with negotiators facing a June 30 deadline.

The prospects of that being met seemed to weaken further on Sunday after a senior commander of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) ruled out allowing intrusive inspections of the country's military sites – one of the putative deal's main pillars.

"We will respond with hot lead (bullets) to those who speak of it," General Hossein Salami, the IRGC's deputy leader, told state television. "It means humiliating a nation. They will not even be permitted to inspect the most normal military site in their dreams."

A fact sheet issued by the US state department following the framework accord said Iran would be required to grant International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors access to "suspicious sites" – an assertion Tehran has disputed.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister – who has called the budding agreement a "bad deal" and launched a campaign to scupper it – denounced it again on Sunday while highlighting Russia's decision last week to sell S-300 missiles to Iran "when [it] is stepping up its aggression in the region".

He added: "Israel also views with utmost gravity the fact that there is no reference to this aggression in the agreement being made between the major powers and Iran. There is no stipulation that this aggression be halted, whether at the start of the agreement or as a condition for the lifting of sanctions."