Iran 'ready for talks' with US if sanctions are lifted: President Hassan Rouhani

Amid growing tensions, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday said Tehran is ready to talk to the United States if sanctions imposed are lifted. "We have always believed in talks ... if they lift sanctions, end the imposed economic pressure and return to the deal, we are ready to hold talks with America today, right now and anywhere," Rouhani said.

Reacting to this, Pompeo said, “President Trump will obviously make the final decision. But this is a path that the previous administration had gone down and it led to the (Iran nuclear deal) which this administration, President Trump and I both believe was a disaster.”

Earlier, Donal Trump had imposed "hard-hitting" sanctions on Iran. Trump's move to impose fresh set of sanctions on Iran comes days after Tehran said it shot down an American drone in the region on Thursday. However, Trump denies the drone, valued at more than USD 100 million, violated Iranian airspace, saying he backed away from planned strikes after learning that 150 people would be killed in the military action.

When asked if his executive order was in response to the Iranian attack on US drone, Trump replied "you could probably add that into this" but then said, "this was something that was going to happen anyway". "I know many Iranians living in New York, and they're fantastic people," Trump said in response to a question.

As part of the expanded sanctions, the United States has also decided to blacklist Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and block "billions" more in Iranian assets, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin informed.

Tensions have been escalating between the United States and Iran since Trump last year withdrew the US from a global nuclear deal with Iran and re-imposed economic sanctions on Iran.