Iran is ready to hold talks with the United States if Washington lifts sanctions and returns to the 2015 nuclear deal it quit last year, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump's administration has said it is open to negotiations with Iran on a more far-reaching agreement on nuclear and security issues.
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But Iran has made any talks conditional on first being able to export as much oil as it did before the United States withdrew from the nuclear pact with world powers in May 2018.
"We have always believed in talks … if they lift sanctions, end the imposed economic pressure and return to the deal, we are ready to hold talks with America today, right now and anywhere," Rouhani said in his Sunday speech.
In an interview with The Washington Post, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dismissed Rouhani's idea as "the same offer that he offered to John F. Kerry and Barack Obama," referring to the former US secretary of state and president.
"President Trump will obviously make the final decision. But this is a path that the previous administration had gone down and it led to the [Iran nuclear deal] which this administration, President Trump and I both believe was a disaster," Pompeo said.
Confrontations between Washington and Tehran have escalated, culminating in an aborted plan for US airstrikes on Iran last month after Tehran downed a US drone. Trump called off the retaliatory US airstrike at the last minute.
