According to The Wall Street Journal, President Joe Biden and his administration have reportedly resumed talks with Iran to release hostages and resume de-escalation on its nuclear program.

Negotiations are suspended from Former US Policy, relied on pressuring Iran to release the hostages. The paper said the US government had “approved €2.5 billion (worth $2.7 billion) in Iraqi government payments for electricity and gas imports from Iran,” which had been blocked by US sanctions. WSJ report. U.S. officials have reportedly denied that the approval had anything to do with the talks.

In exchange for freeing hostages and limiting its nuclear program, the Iranian government has demanded “billions of dollars in Iranian energy revenues trapped abroad by US sanctions.” Via WSJ. (Related: Biden quietly waives sanctions on Iran nuclear program)

Former President Donald Trump and his administration scrapped the previous nuclear deal with Iran in 2018 and invoked current Iran sanctions. Since then, Iran’s nuclear program has amassed enough weapons-grade uranium to build. at least two nuclear weapons.

Biden’s policy toward Iran is to ease tensions without lifting sanctions, and talks began last summer. it wasn’t enough. Henry Rohm, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, said recent U.S. payments to Iran and other Islamic nations “are hard to separate from the situation in which the U.S. seeks to de-escalate all-out tensions with Iran.” told the city journal.

.@SecBlinken“We continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to verifiably, effectively and sustainably deter Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.” pic.twitter.com/HBEBpHYQDC

— Department of State (@StateDept) June 5, 2023

Iran has probably hinted at de-escalation and is willing to comply in some way with the UN International Atomic Energy Agency.

According to the WSJ, on Monday, “Bagheri-Khani met in Abu Dhabi with senior officials from Britain, France and Germany who helped facilitate the last nuclear deal under President Barack Obama.”