Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Sunday that the United States had begun to communicate with Iran about the detention of American citizens, calling the matter “outright outrage”.
Iran has arrested dozens of dual nationals, including several Americans, in recent years, mostly on espionage charges. Human rights activists accuse Tehran of trying to use arrests to obtain concessions from other countries, a charge it rejects.
Sullivan told CBS’s Face the Nation program that it was a “significant priority” to take those Americans “safely home”.
“We started to communicate with the Iranians on this issue,” said Sullivan. “We will not accept a long-term proposal in which they continue to keep Americans in an unfair and illegal manner.”
The issue represented a “humanitarian catastrophe,” he said.
Sullivan added that Biden is “determined” to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and that diplomacy is the best way to do this.
The U.S. said last week that it was ready to talk to Iran about the return of both nations to a 2015 agreement, abandoned by the Trump administration, which was aimed at preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons and lifting most international sanctions.
“Iran has not yet responded,” said Sullivan.
Any communication between Tehran and Washington about US citizens detained in Iran was conducted through the Swiss embassy, which deals with US interests, and not through any direct contact, an Iranian news website reported.
“The Iranian government has not discussed American prisoners with Washington,” said an unnamed source on the website, which is affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. “All messages were exchanged through the Swiss embassy in Tehran.”
The two countries are at odds over who should take the first step to reactivate the agreement. Iran’s foreign ministry on Sunday reiterated that the United States will not be able to return to the pact before lifting sanctions. Washington says Tehran must first return to compliance.
Sullivan also told CBS that the United States would respond to the SolarWinds hack that hit several government agencies last year in “weeks, not months”, while investigating the suspected Russian cyber attack. He said the answer would include a combination of visible and invisible tools, and would not simply consist of sanctions.
“We will ensure that Russia understands where the United States draws limits on this type of activity,” said Sullivan.