Washington Ready to Negotiate with Iran “Any Time”, Pompeo

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that Washington is ready to negotiate with Iran "at any time".

Addressing reporters during his current visit to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, Pompeo stressed that Tehran needs to “Fundamentally” change its behavior, noting that the campaign of maximum pressure would continue.

"We are not rushing, the pressure campaign continues,” US secretary of state said. ”It's not just an economic pressure campaign, yet it's isolation through diplomacy as well.”

Moreover, he considered Iran's detention of European and American citizens as “illegal and unacceptable".

Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump affirmed that his country will not lift Iran sanctions in order to negotiate.

“Iranian Foreign Minister says Iran wants to negotiate with the United States but wants sanctions removed. No Thanks!” Trump tweeted.

It is worth mentioning that, the tensions between Washington and Tehran have escalated since the U.S. withdrawal from Iran’s nuclear agreement by world powers in 2018 and reimposed sanctions which led to a decline in Iranian oil exports and hit the country’s economy.

Tensions between the two countries have reached their highest levels in decades after the US killed commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Qassem Soleimani by a drone in Baghdad, prompting Tehran to fire missiles at US bases in Iraq.