Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is warning that the West cannot stop his country from obtaining nuclear weapons. 

Speaking Sunday during a tour of Iran’s nuclear project, Khamenei said, "On the basis of our Islamic ideals, we do not want nuclear weapons," according to The Jerusalem Post. 

"But if this wasn’t the case, they would not be able to prevent us from doing so, just like they could not prevent our nuclear advancements so far," he added. 

Khamenei urged Iranian officials not to comply with "excessive and false demands" from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), saying that a 2020 law passed by Iran's parliament – in which the country would suspend the IAEA’s inspections of its nuclear activity and increase uranium enrichment if sanctions are not lifted – should be respected, Reuters reported. 

ISRAEL CALLS OUT NUCLEAR WATCHDOG, ACCUSES THEM OF MAKING ‘EXTREMELY DANGEROUS’ DEAL WITH IRAN 

"This is a good law... which must be respected and not violated in providing access and information (to the IAEA)," Reuters quoted Khamenei as saying. 

He also said a deal with the West over Iran's nuclear work is possible if its nuclear infrastructure remains untouched, Reuters reported.

But Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow and Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that "Khamenei’s comments on any potential nuclear agreement have no meaning sans context. 

"He is not interested in making Iran a responsible nuclear stakeholder nor is he enthralled with the idea of a deal," Taleblu added. "It is all about retaining Iran’s atomic infrastructure as much as possible and by any means possible."

The IAEA closed two investigations into Iran's nuclear program around the start of June as part of the negotiations seeking a reinstallation of monitoring equipment.

CONGRESSMAN URGES JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO INVESTIGATE SUSPECTED IRAN ‘KILL LIST’ TARGETING US LAW ENFORCEMENT AND AMERICAN JEWS 

The IAEA was working to reinstate monitoring equipment that Iran had ordered removed after withdrawing from its 2015 nuclear deal, but the organization has only put a slim amount of equipment in place. 

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant condemned the move, offering an ominous warning that Israel may have to take actions of its own. 

"The dangers facing the State of Israel are increasing, and we may be required to fulfill our duty in order to protect the integrity of Israel and especially the future of the Jewish people," he said at the time. "The tasks are heavy and the challenges are great. The reality in which we find ourselves is complex, but the State of Israel, the IDF and all the security agencies, will know what to do to ensure Israel's security in the present and in the future." 

The IAEA's actions came as a top Iranian general announced that the country was ramping up efforts to export weapons, military equipment and training to its allies in both the Middle East and across the globe. 

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom, and Yonat Friling contributed to this report. 

The Philippines’ most active volcano was spewing lava down its slopes on Monday, prompting officials to warn tens of thousands of villagers to be prepared to flee from their homes if the gentle eruption turns into a violent and life-threatening explosion, officials said Monday.

More than 13,000 people have left the mostly poor farming communities within a 3.7-mile radius of Mayon Volcano’s crater in mandatory evacuations since volcanic activity increased last week. But an unspecified number of residents remain within the permanent danger zone below Mayon, an area long declared off-limits to people but where generations have lived and farmed because they have nowhere else to go.

With the volcano beginning to expel lava Sunday night, the high-risk zone around Mayon may be expanded should the eruption turn violent, said Teresito Bacolcol, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. Bacolcol said if that happens, people in any expanded danger zone should be prepared to evacuate to emergency shelters.

VILLAGERS IN THE PHILIPPINES TOLD TO LEAVE AS OFFICIALS RAISE ALERT LEVEL FOR NEARBY VOLCANO

"What we are seeing now is an effusive eruption," Bacolcol told The Associated Press. "We are looking at this on a day-to-day basis."

From a distance, Associated Press journalists watched lava flow down the volcano’s southeastern gullies for hours Sunday night. People hurriedly stepped out of restaurants and bars in a seaside promenade of Legazpi, the capital of northeastern Albay province about 8.5 miles from Mayon, many of them snapping pictures of the volcano that’s a popular tourist draw known for its picturesque conical shape.

Mayon's renewed restiveness has also struck fear and brought new suffering.

Marilyn Miranda said she, her daughter and 75-year-old mother, who recently suffered a stroke, fled their home in a village within the danger zone in Guinobatan town on Thursday and sought shelter at a sweltering high school turned into an evacuation center. Her nephew returns to their home each day, as do other men in their impoverished rural neighborhood to guard their houses and farm animals, she said.

From the overcrowded evacuation center, they were terrified to see the bright red-orange lava streaks gushing down Mayon’s slope on Sunday night. "We had this feeling that our end is near," Miranda told the AP, breaking into tears.

Mayon's new eruption was one of back-to-back tragedies that struck Amelia Morales and her family in recent days. Her husband died of an aneurism and other illnesses on Friday and she had to hold his funeral wake in a crowded emergency shelter in Guinobatan because she and her neighbors had been ordered to stay away from their community near Mayon.

PHOTOS SHOW HAWAII'S KILAUEA VOLCANO ERUPTING AGAIN

"I need help to bury my husband because we don’t have any money left," Morales, 63, said as she sat near her husband’s white wooden coffin under a flimsy open tent in a corner of the evacuation center. "I cannot do anything but cry."

With its peak often shrouded by the wisps of passing clouds, the 8,077-foot volcano appeared calm on Monday. Bacolcol said red-hot lava was continuing to flow down its slopes but could not easily be seen by people under the bright sun.

The volcano had been raised to alert level three on a five-step warning system Thursday, meaning the volcano was in a state of high unrest and a hazardous eruption is possible in weeks or days.

With lava flowing down from the volcano gently, Bacolcol said the alert level would stay at three but it could be moved up higher if the eruption suddenly turns perilous.

The highest alert, level five, would mean a violent and life-threatening eruption is underway with ash plumes shooting into the sky and superheated pyroclastic streams endangering more communities at Mayon’s lush foothills.

Mayon is one of 24 active volcanoes in the Philippines. It last erupted violently in 2018, displacing tens of thousands of villagers. In 1814, Mayon’s eruption buried entire villages and reportedly left more than 1,000 people dead.

The archipelago is lashed by about 20 typhoons and tropical storms a year and is located on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," the rim of seismic faults where most of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.

In 1991, Mount Pinatubo north of Manila blew its top in one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century, killing hundreds.