Iran would consider dealing directly with the U.S. if there was significant progress toward securing a “good” nuclear deal, its foreign minister said. 

Envoys in Vienna are locked in their eighth round of negotiations aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal that lifted some sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its atomic work. Tehran has often been more optimistic about a deal than the U.S. and European envoys who warn time is running out for success.  

Iran and the U.S. are negotiating via the European Union’s envoy. 

“If in the process of the negotiations, we reach a stage whereby getting to a good deal with top guarantees requires us having discussions with the Americans on certain levels, we won’t overlook this in our plans,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said told reporters in Tehran, according to a statement shown on state TV.

His spokesman had sounded an upbeat note on talks with world powers earlier Monday. 

Iran has said a restored deal must include some form of guarantee from the U.S. that a future administration won’t try to dismantle and jettison the accord like former President Donald Trump did in 2018. 

If the U.S. rejoins the agreement and Iran rolls back advances in its atomic work, it could bring millions of Iranian barrels back to a tightly supplied global oil market. It could also reduce tensions with Washington and in the Persian Gulf. 

Amirabdollahian said that while Iran doesn’t want “new members from the region” being added to the nuclear negotiations “consulting with all the neighbors is certainly a priority that we’re pursuing in even in the Vienna talks”.

On Sunday, U.S. Special Envoy for Iran, Robert Malley told Reuters that while discussions for the release of U.S.-Iranian nationals were separate to the nuclear talks, their release was still a precondition for restoring the deal.

In response, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said the U.S. should not draw human rights issues into the negotiations. 

The two countries could clinch deals both on the nuclear accord and on the release of detainees “if the U.S. shows the will,” he said. Diplomats in Vienna were “closer than ever” to reaching a deal to restore the nuclear accord but the U.S. was also causing “problems” for the talks by “not making decisions”, he added. 

Iran released four U.S.-Iranian nationals in 2016 who had been imprisoned on national security charges, the same day the original nuclear accord came into effect. The Wall Street Journal later reported that the release coincided with Washington unfreezing tens of millions of dollars of Iranian funds. At the time, both the U.S. and Iran denied any link between the implementation of the nuclear deal and the prisoner release.