A top Iranian security official traveled Tuesday to Oman, the Mideast sultanate now mediating talks between Tehran and the United States over the Islamic Republic' nuclear program aimed at halting a possible American strike.

Ali Larijani, a former Iranian Parliament speaker who now serves as the secretary to the country's Supreme National Security Council, likely will carry his country's response to the initial round of indirect talks held last week in Muscat with the Americans.

Iran warned Tuesday of "destructive" influence on diplomacy ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington for talks expected to focus on U.S. negotiations with Tehran.

"Our negotiating party is America. It is up to America to decide to act independently of the pressures and destructive influences that are detrimental to the region," said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei in a weekly press briefing.

U.S. President Donald Trump's lead Iran negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have visited the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, the US military said, with Washington and Tehran due to hold further talks soon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Wednesday to "discuss with him the negotiations with Iran", the premier's office said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday ruled out Tehran ever giving up uranium enrichment in its negotiations with Washington, insisting it will not be intimidated by the threat of war with the United States.

The United States wants Ukraine and Russia to end their nearly four-year war by June, and has offered to host talks between the two sides in Florida next week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Iran's foreign minister said a fresh round of talks with Washington would take place "soon", while insisting that enrichment was Tehran's "inalienable right" and building trust would take time.

U.S. President Donald Trump said that Washington had "very good talks" on Iran after the two sides held an indirect dialogue in Oman, pledging another round of negotiations next week.

A suicide bomber targeted a Shiite mosque on the outskirts of Islamabad during Friday prayers, killing 31 people and wounding at least 169 others, officials said, a rare bombing in Pakistan's capital as its Western-allied government struggles to rein in a surge in militant attacks across the country.

Television footage and social media images showed police and residents transporting the wounded to nearby hospitals. Some of the wounded in the attack on the sprawling mosque of Khadija Al-Kubra were reported to be in critical condition.

A deputy chief of Russia's military intelligence agency was shot and wounded in Moscow on Friday in an attack that follows a series of assassinations of senior military officers that Russia has blamed on Ukraine.

Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev was hospitalized after being shot several times by an unidentified assailant at an apartment building in northwestern Moscow, Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement.