(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Iran has been asking if U.S. sanctions against the country can be lifted.
“Iran has been asking if the sanctions could be lifted. Iran has got very heavy U.S. sanctions, and it makes it really hard for them to do what they’d like to be able to do. And I’m open to hearing that, and we’ll see what happens, but I would be open to it,” Trump told reporters late on Thursday at the White House.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that cooperation between Iran and the United States is not possible as long as Washington continues to support Israel, maintain military bases, and interfere in the Middle East.
After taking office for his second term in January, Trump restored his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, which includes efforts to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. In June, the U.S. bombed Iran’s nuclear sites.
The two countries held five rounds of nuclear talks, prior to a 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June. However, talks between the two sides have faced major stumbling blocks, such as the issue of uranium enrichment on Iranian soil, which Western powers want to bring down to zero to minimise any risk of weaponisation – a plan that Tehran has rejected.
(Reporting by Christian Martinez, Michelle Nichols and Nandita Bose; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Michael Perry)
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