Iran 'very much continues to talk' to US: White House

Iran continues to communicate with the US and has expressed interest in reaching a nuclear agreement despite recent US military strikes, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday.

Asked whether negotiations with Tehran were at a standstill or had effectively ended, Leavitt said President Donald Trump had told her that diplomatic contacts remain active.

"Well, I've spoken with the president about this as recently as an hour ago. Iran very much continues to talk to the United States of America and express that they want to make a deal with us because they are suffering devastating blows on behalf of our United States military," she said.

Leavitt said the reason for the recent US strikes over the last several days is "because Iran violated the memorandum of understanding that we struck with them."