The Biden administration rejected as "false" any claims that it was engaged in talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
"Since September especially our focus has been on standing up, … for the fundamental freedoms of the Iranian people," US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington on Tuesday.
In addition, he said, the US is working to "countering Iran’s deepening military partnership with Russia and its support for Russia’s war in Ukraine."
'No reason to resume talks'
He spoke just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he feared that efforts were still underway to revive the Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has warned that the window to reach a deal is closing and Germany, which along with the US, is a signatory to the deal has said there is no reason to resume talks.
The United States, which is one of six signatories to the deal, had pushed for that revival until September when it decided that the resumption of the deal was not relevant.
The European Union which has brokered indirect talks for the deal's resumption and has spoken in the last weeks of its desire too restore the deal would need American and German consent for their efforts to be effective.
"We’ve also heard what, in some cases, is just purely fiction emanating from Iran."
US State Department spokesman Ned Price
Price said that the "Iranians killed the opportunity for a swift return to mutual compliance with the JCPOA ... in September when they turned their backs on a deal that was by all accounts essentially finalized, ready to go. Since then the JCPOA just hasn’t been on the agenda. It hasn’t been on the agenda for months," he explained.
"For months now we have only seen foot-dragging and empty promises by Iran. Nothing we have heard suggests that Iran has changed. We remain very skeptical of anything coming out of Tehran on this issue."
"We’ve also heard what, in some cases, is just purely fiction emanating from Iran," said Price as he clarified that any reference to the United States engagement in talks was simply not true.