The US State Department spokesperson Ned Price called the comments as a lie, Associated Press reported.
“We are working relentlessly to secure the release of the three wrongfully detained Americans in Iran,” Price claimed. “We will not stop until they are reunited with their loved ones.”
A separate statement from the White House’s National Security Council also called the remarks “false,” AP reported.
Speaking to the National Iranian TV on Sunday, the foreign minister of Iran Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that "if all goes well, we will witness the exchange of prisoners with the United States."
Amir-Abdollahian's remarks came after Iran and Saudi Arabia announced on Friday that they would restore their diplomatic relations and reopen their embassies in a diplomatic breakthrough brokered by China.
This is not the first time the US reneges on its promises. Washington blocked the nuclear talks from reaching a conclusion last year while it had claimed that it would lift the sanctions on Iran that the previous Trump administration had imposed after its illegal withdrawal from the nuclear deal.
MNA