The news media reproduced statements by Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh, who ruled out direct talks between the Iranian and US delegations.

Khatibzadeh recalled that only with a genuine intention to lift anti-Iranian sanctions, Washington could rejoin the nuclear pact, otherwise, he emphasized, it will stay away from the negotiations.

On Monday, Iran and the remaining signatories of the nuclear deal signed in 2015, resumed talks in the Austrian capital in order to revive that pact abandoned by Washington in 2018.

The Islamic Republic demands the total elimination of the coercive measures imposed by the US Government and their verification and, apart from that, guarantees that a future US executive shows no respect for what was sealed.

pgh/iff/oda/arc