U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday his country was ready to talk with Tehran “with no preconditions,” but there was no indication if lifting sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program was on the table.

The top U.S. diplomat, who is considered a hawk on the Iran file, appeared to soften the U.S. stance somewhat following weeks of escalating tensions with Tehran.

“We are prepared to engage in a conversation with no preconditions,” Pompeo said in Switzerland, which in the absence of U.S.-Iranian diplomatic ties represents Washington’s interests in the Islamic Republic.

“We are ready to sit down with them,” Pompeo told a joint news conference with his Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis at the impressive medieval Castelgrande castle in Bellinzona, nestled in the Alps in Switzerland’s Italian-speaking Ticino region.

He was reacting to comments made by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday insisting that his country would not be “bullied” into talks with the United States, and that any dialogue between the two countries needed to be grounded in “respect.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also said in an interview with the American network ABC broadcast Sunday that it was “not very likely” that Tehran would agree to talks with the U.S. any time soon.

U.S. President Donald Trump, he said, “is imposing pressure.”

“This may work in a real estate market. It does not work in dealing with Iran,” he said, insisting that “threats against Iran never work. ... Try respect. That may work.”

Pompeo’s comments mark the first time the Trump administration has offered no-strings-attached talks since the recent escalation began in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from a hard-won 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

But Pompeo stressed that “the American effort to fundamentally reverse the malign activity of this Islamic Republic, this revolutionary force, is going to continue.”

In other words, Washington has no intention to let up on its campaign of “maximum pressure” on Iran.

Pompeo himself last year laid out 12 draconian demands he said Iran would need to meet before reaching a “new deal” with the United States. Washington has since reimposed sanctions, and has been locked in an increasingly tense standoff with Tehran. (SD-Agencies)