Dubai: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the concept of Iranian nuclear weapons was a fabrication and the United States was the real source of threat, hardening his rhetoric before nuclear negotiations resume this week.

‘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,’ Khamenei said in comments cited by the semi-official Fars news agency on Sunday.

‘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,’ he said in an address to military commanders.