US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that there has been a lot of progress made with Iran, stressing that he is not looking for "regime change" in the Middle Eastern country.
He didn't provide details on the issue, but US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo noted that Tehran was ready to start negotiations on the Iranian missile programme.
The statement comes after Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Washington is always welcome to continue talks with the Islamic Republic, but that the US must lift anti-Iranian sanctions first.
In 2018, Trump unilaterally abandoned the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the Iranian nuclear deal, ramping up new sanctions against the country and later deploying additional US troops near Iran's borders.
A year after the US withdrawal, Tehran suspended some of its obligations under the deal, urging other signatories to the JCPOA to shield the country from the harmful US restrictions. Iran also called on the US to end the sanctions and return to the agreement.