TEHRAN - Esmaeil Kosari, the chairman of the Majlis Defense Committee, has rejected media speculations that Iran has held direct talks with the U.S. over the Syrian crisis, saying the country would never negotiate with the U.S. over any topic other than the nuclear issue.

The Iranian negotiating team does not at all hold any direct negotiations with the U.S. outside the nuclear issue, Kosari told the Tasnim news agency.

MP Baqer Hosseini, who is a member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, also told Tasnim that Foreign Ministry officials have no permission to hold talks with the U.S. on other issues.

Given the guidelines of the Supreme Leader and considering the previous experiences with Americans, Iran is not supposed to hold talks with the U.S. on any topic other than the nuclear issue, Hosseini said.

The remarks came after certain media outlets alleged that Tehran and Washington have conferred on the Syrian war in their bilateral talks on Thursday in Vienna.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his accompanying delegation who had visited Vienna for talks on the Syrian crisis also held talks with the foreign ministers of the 5+1 group on the implementation of the nuclear deal, officially known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The 5+1 foreign ministers along with foreign ministers from other countries such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Lebanon, had participated in the conference on the Syrian conflict.

In a similar reaction to the claim, U.S. State Department Spokesman John Kirby stressed that “the discussions with Iran over Syria and what’s going on in Syria took place inside the multilateral setting.

“The meetings bilaterally were primarily about JCPOA implementation,” he added.

On October 7, Ayatollah Khamenei categorically rejected the idea of talks between Tehran and Washington in areas other than the nuclear issue.

Negotiating with the U.S. is forbidden because it would bear no fruits, Ayatollah Khamenei stressed at the time.

MD/P