U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday that he would "happily" go to Tehran to address tensions between the two countries over U.S. sanctions on the Gulf nation, after Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Iran is ready for "just" negotiations on Wednesday.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Pompeo explained he would willingly appear on Iranian television to explain why the U.S. is sanctioning Iran. "I would welcome the chance to speak directly to the Iranian people... about what it is their leadership has done and how it has harmed Iran," he said.

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Tensions between Washington and Tehran have soared since President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of a deal with Iran last year. The deal was aimed at curbing its nuclear program, and imposed punishing sanctions.

The U.S. has said it brought down one and possibly two Iranian drones last week, and has blamed Iran for a series of mysterious attacks on tanker ships in strategic Gulf waters. Tehran shot down an unmanned U.S. aircraft in June, after which Trump announced that he had called off retaliatory air strikes at the last minute because the resulting death toll would have been too high.

 During a visit to the United Nations last week, Iran's top diplomat renewed accusations that the U.S. was using the sanctions to wage "economic terrorism." Iranians are "subjected to the most brutal form of 'economic terrorism' – deliberately targeting innocent civilians to achieve illegitimate political objectives," said Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Pompeo brushed the accusations aside on Thursday, saying Zarif was no more in charge of the Iranian government than "the man in the moon." "At the end of the day, this is driven by the ayatollah," said Pompeo.

He said the U.S. goal is to "create as much stability in the Middle East as we could." "So we broke out of the deal, we stopped giving them money, we put pressure on the Iranian regime, and we're forcing them to make tough decisions about how they're going to behave," Pompeo said.

"We want change in behavior from the Iranian leadership so that the Iranian people can ultimately get what it is they deserve."

The remarks come after Rouhani signaled possible negotiations with the United States on Wednesday. "As long as I have the responsibility for the executive duties of the country, we are completely ready for just, legal and honest negotiations to solve the problems," Rouhani said, according to his official website.

"But at the same time we are not ready to sit at the table of surrender under the name of negotiations," he added.

(With input from AFP)

(Cover: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives at a closed briefing for House members on Iran in Washington, DC., May 21, 2019. /VCG Photo)