"There are no direct negotiations between Iran and the United States, and the exchange of messages is only within the defined framework," the source told IRNA on condition of anonymity.

The source emphasized that Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Ali Bagheri Kani is in charge of negotiations with signatories of the 2015 nuclear agreement, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to remove sanctions against Iran.

The United States, under president Donald Trump, unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 and restored the sanctions that the deal had lifted, prompting Iran to begin scaling back its commitments under the agreement.

Talks to salvage the nuclear deal began in Vienna in April 2021 with the intention of examining how serious the Joe Biden administration was in claiming that it wanted to rejoin the deal.

The negotiations, however, stalled as the US refused to lift the sanctions, a key demand of Iran in the talks.