"We are having discussions obviously with Iranian officials about trying to get wrongfully detained Americans home, that's true ... and the return to the Iran deal is not a major focus on the agenda right now. We've got to make sure that we are dealing with their destabilizing behavior and we are," Kirby told US media, answering on the question about possible informal talks between the US and Iran on a nuclear deal.
Earlier in the day, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told another outlet that Washington is "not close to any kind of a deal" with respect to Iran's nuclear program, also saying that Washington's main focus in relations with Tehran is to seek the release of US citizens detained in Iran.
On Tuesday, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller called reports about Washington indirectly negotiating some sort of a deal with Iran "either wrong or completely misleading."
In June, several US media outlets reported that the United States and Iran held indirect talks in Oman in May to discuss Tehran’s nuclear program and lifting of sanctions amid a freeze in negotiations on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal.
In 2015, Iran and China, France, Russia, the UK, the US plus Germany and the EU signed the JCPOA, which envisaged lifting sanctions against Tehran in exchange for restricting the Iranian nuclear program. Under former US President Donald Trump, the US withdrew from the deal, reimposing sanctions against Iran. The country reacted by reducing its obligations under the deal, including those concerning nuclear research, centrifuges and uranium enrichment levels.
In December 2021, talks on the resumption of the JCPOA were resumed, but a year later the progress on the deal became largely frozen.