US officials believe Israel is ready to carry out an attack on Iran and could launch military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming days, reports suggested early Thursday, even as high-level talks aimed at a diplomatic deal over Tehran’s nuclear activity remained on track for Sunday.

The reports, from US networks NBC and CBS, that Israel was moving toward a long-threatened military strike came hours after the US announced it would evacuate some personnel from the region amid fears they could be targeted by Iran in reprisal actions.

The moves came after US President Donald Trump indicated he was no longer as confident as he had been previously that his administration could reach a deal with Iran, after negotiations appeared to snag over Tehran’s insistence that it be allowed to maintain low-level uranium enrichment.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Thursday that a “friendly” regional country had alerted Tehran over a potential military strike by Israel.

The official said tensions were intended to “influence Tehran to change its position about its nuclear rights” during talks with the United States set for Sunday in Oman, vowing that Tehran would hold firm to its insistence on maintaining some enrichment.

Citing five unnamed sources familiar with the situation, NBC News reported that Israel was considering launching an attack on Iran within days and without the support of the US, which is still holding out hope for talks.

According to the report, Israel was weighing the option of striking the Islamic Republic’s nuclear infrastructure, fearing that Washington could agree to a deal that falls short of its demands regarding Iran ending all nuclear enrichment.

Sources told the news network that they were not aware of any plans in the US to aid Israel in its endeavor to strike Iran, directly or indirectly, in the form of aerial refueling or intelligence sharing.

But the sources said US officials were on alert.

CBS News, citing multiple sources, said US officials have been told Israel is “fully ready to launch an operation into Iran.”

Both reports cited worries that Iran could retaliate against US personnel stationed in neighboring Iraq as the reason the State Department and Pentagon authorized some US officials and their families to leave the region on Wednesday.

Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh said on Wednesday that if Iran was subjected to strikes it would retaliate by hitting US bases in the region.

Iran’s military and government had also prepared a plan for an immediate counterstrike on Israel with hundreds of ballistic missiles, a senior Iranian official told The New York Times.

In October, Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel, though much of the attack was thwarted by air defenses in Israel and with the help of regional allies and the US.

Retaliatory strikes by Israel later that month severely damaged Iran’s air defense systems, and analysts have speculated that Israel prefers to launch military action before the Islamic Republic has time to rebuild its air defense array.

Asked about the decision to move US personnel out of the region, Trump answered “they are being moved out because it could be a dangerous place, and we’ll see what happens.”

“They can’t have a nuclear weapon. Very simple, they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” he added in response to a question about what could be done to lower tensions.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if stuttering talks over its nuclear program fail, and in an interview released earlier on Wednesday said he was growing “getting more and more less confident” that Tehran would agree to stop enriching uranium, a key American demand.

“They seem to be delaying, and I think that’s a shame. I’m less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago. Something happened to them,” he said in the interview recorded Monday.

Earlier Wednesday, a statement from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, a Mideast-based effort overseen by the British navy, issued a warning to ships in the region that it “has been made aware of increased tensions within the region which could lead to an escalation of military activity having a direct impact on mariners.”

Despite the rising tensions, Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi confirmed Thursday on X that Muscat will host a sixth round of nuclear talks between the US and Iran on Sunday.

A US official told Reuters that Special Envoy Steve Witkoff planned to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Oman on Sunday and discuss Iran’s response to the recent American proposal for a nuclear deal.

The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions that the US has imposed on the Islamic Republic. Iran, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, insists its nuclear program is peaceful, although it has enriched uranium to levels that have no use for civilian purposes.

Speaking at a United Hatzalah gala in New York on Wednesday, Witkoff said he had spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day and asserted that the Islamic Republic “must never be permitted to enrich uranium or develop any nuclear capability.”

“A nuclear Iran represents an existential threat to Israel, as does an Iran with a large amount of missiles,” he said. “That is as big an existential threat as the nuclear threat.”

“We must stand resolute and united against this danger and ensure that Iran never obtains the means to achieve its deadly ambitions no matter what the cost,” he said to applause.

Iran’s mission to the UN posted on social media that “threats of overwhelming force won’t change the facts.”

“Iran is not seeking a nuclear weapon, and U.S. militarism only fuels instability,” the Iranian mission wrote.

Nasirzadeh, the Iranian defense minister, separately told journalists Wednesday that he hoped talks with the US would yield results, though Tehran stood ready to respond.

“If conflict is imposed on us, the opponent’s casualties will certainly be more than ours, and in that case, America must leave the region, because all its bases are within our reach,” he said. “We have access to them, and we will target all of them in the host countries without hesitation.”

Security expert Michael Knights, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, posited that the evacuation of staff was intended to let Iran know that it is not a sure thing that Washington will intervene to prevent Israel from launching an attack.

“It’s about trying to get Iran to respect the president’s wishes,” he said.

Agencies contributed to this report.