U.S. repeats it's willing to meet Iran directly on nuclear issue

The U.S. State Department on Monday repeated that it remains open to meeting with Iranian officials directly to discuss the nuclear deal and other issues after Iran's foreign minister said Tehran would consider this but had made no decisions.

Speaking at a briefing, State Department spokesman Ned Price also said the United States had not made Iran's releasing four Americans a condition of reaching an agreement for both nations to resume compliance with the nuclear deal, saying that achieving such an agreement was an uncertain proposition. (Reporting By Simon Lewis, Humeyra Pamuk and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Leslie Adler)