Iran never has and never will seek a temporary or interim nuclear agreement, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told Iranian media on Monday.
"We have always said that we have never deviated from the path of diplomacy and negotiation. From the beginning of the government's work, the president decided that we should act in two ways: neutralizing the sanctions and trying to cancel the unilateral and unfair sanctions of the United States through diplomacy. The part that is related to trying to neutralize the sanctions, goes back to the content of the JCPOA."
"We have been discussing, negotiating and exchanging indirect messages with the American side for months," said Amirabdollahian. "In this direction, I would like to emphasize that we have never sought a temporary agreement or a lesser agreement and we will never seek it."
Efforts by the US, European nations, and Iran to return to compliance with the JCPOA nuclear deal have been stalled for months.
In June, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani confirmed that the US and Iran were holding negotiations in Oman about Iran's nuclear program and prisoner swaps.
Iran and United States' $6 billion deal
Amirabdollahian referenced a recent agreement reached with the US in which $6 billion of Iranian assets was released from South Korea, stating that the assets were transferred from South Korea to a European bank, except for a limited amount in order to keep the bank account open.
The amount will be converted into Euros in the coming days and weeks and Iran will then be able to use the funds to purchase non-sanctioned items, according to the foreign minister, which called the restriction "cruel and unfair behavior of the other party."
The foreign minister added that Iran treats the issue of prisoners and the issue of Iranian assets being held in foreign banks separately, stressing that the two issues are not connected at all and that five American citizens who were released from prison by Iran recently were released based on humanitarian grounds and not because of the release of Iranian assets.