U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan maintained that President “Biden is intent, determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon… hardheaded, clear-eyed diplomacy is the best way to do that. And so he’s prepared to go to the table to talk to the Iranians about how we get strict constraints back on their nuclear program”. “That offer still stands because we believe diplomacy is the best way to do it”, Sullivan added. “Iran has not yet responded. But what’s happened as a result is that the script has been flipped. It is Iran that is isolated now diplomatically, not the U.S.”. He further referred to Iran’s detention of U.S. citizens as an “utter outrage” and revealed that “we have begun to communicate with the Iranians on this issue”, adding: “We will not accept a long-term proposition where they continue to hold Americans in an unjust and unlawful manner”. Iran’s diplomatic spokesperson subsequently emphasised that “our policy is to secure freedom of our country’s prisoners in the U.S. and we are ready for this issue, but we have had no direct talks with the U.S.”.