Iran's top cleric who oversees the state, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appears to have shut the door on opening new negotiations with Washington in the wake of fresh Trump-ordered sanctions intended to disrupt Iran's oil network and to take exports "down to zero".

"First, negotiations with the US have no effect on solving [Iran’s] problems. The reason? Experience!" Khamenei said on Friday. He explained that during the Obama presidency, "we sat down and negotiated with the US for about two years, and an agreement was formed. In this agreement, the Iranian side was very generous and gave many concessions to the other side."

During Trump's first term, he unilaterally pulled the US from the 'bad' JCPOA nuclear deal, which happened in April 2018 - after which a "maximum pressure" campaign was imposed on Tehran. Trump this week revived this pressure campaign via ramped-up sanctions.