In this photo provided by the US Navy, the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group transits the Suez Canal, May 9, 2019. (File photo: US Navy via AP)

WASHINGTON, June 5 (Xinhua) -- The door is still open for a wider negotiation with Iran, U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said on Friday.

U.S. President Donald Trump "has had the door open to diplomacy for many years," Hook replied to a journalist a day after Iran freed U.S. citizen Michael White. "We would like to see the (Iranian) regime meet our diplomacy with diplomacy."

Hook noted as well that U.S.-Iranian contacts have so far been limited to mutual release of prisoners, not concerned issues like Iran's nuclear program.

However, he reiterated that the United States will stick to its policy of harsh economic sanctions on Iran, designed to force the Middle East country back to the so-called negotiating table over the Iranian nuclear program.

Trump withdrew Washington from the multilateral Iranian nuclear accord in 2018 and resumed unilateral sanctions on Tehran.