Dubai: Iran is open to negotiations with the US if the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei agrees to it, a minister said on Thursday, just days before a 60-day deadline expires on the country's latest threat to the nuclear accord signed in 2015.

"Negotiation between Iran and America will take place if the supreme leader gives the permission," Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi was cited as saying by state-run IRNA news agency.

"The US President thought that sanctions would bring Iran to its knees but the Islamic Republic will not succumb to negotiations under the pressure of global arrogance."

People walk at the old main bazaar in Tehran, where the effects of the sanctions can be easily felt.Credit:AP

Iran's leaders, including Khamenei, have repeatedly refused to negotiate with the US while under crippling sanctions.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd.Credit:AP

The apparent olive branch came a day after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned his country  would increase its enrichment of uranium to “any amount that we want" beginning on Sunday, putting further pressure on European nations to save its faltering nuclear deal and offer a way around intense US sanctions.

Rouhani's threat, combined with Iran surpassing the stockpile limits of the 2015 nuclear deal, could narrow the estimated one-year window it would need to produce enough material for a nuclear weapon, something Iran denies it wants but the deal sought to prevent.

Two months ago he gave European leaders signatories to the agreement 60 days to salvage it. That deadline expires on Sunday.

But as tensions rose a year after US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the deal, it looked unlikely that Europe could offer Iran a way to sell its oil on the global market despite US sanctions.

All this comes as the US has rushed an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers and F-22 fighters to the region and Iran recently shot down a US military surveillance drone. "Be careful with the threats, Iran. They can come back to bite you like nobody has been bitten before!" Trump tweeted in response to Rouhani's warning.

US President Donald Trump signs an executive order imposing sanctions on Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, last month.Credit:Bloomberg

On Wednesday, Iran also marked the anniversary of the US Navy shooting down an Iranian passenger jet in 1988, a mistake that killed 290 people and shows the danger of miscalculation in the current crisis.

"The Trump administration is pushing the centre of Iranian politics to the right at the determent of the Iranian people and the entire region," said Ali Vaez, an Iran analyst for the International Crisis Group. "Rouhani is clearly at the end of his rope and has no choice other than green lighting further escalation."

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