Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
Iranian President Hassan RouhaniReuters

As the US and world powers approach a November 24 deadline on nuclear talks with Iran, governmental sources in the Islamic regime have reported that they are conducting secret talks with America about renewing diplomatic ties for the first time in 35 years.

Iranian government advisers spoke to the British The Times, and said secret talks with American officials have centered around the possibility of opening a US trade office in the Iranian capital of Tehran if a nuclear deal is reached.

Those talks are to continue this week, and according to the officials will take place in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, located just north of Iran on the Caspian Sea.

They added that the Iranian delegation in the covert talks is led by Mohammad Reza Sabzalipour, head of Iran's global trade bureau.

Talk of renewing trade and diplomatic ties comes after those ties were cut in the 1979 Islamic Revolution and hostage crisis, in which Americans were held hostage at the embassy in Tehran. It also comes on the background of sanctions that have been placed on Iran over its nuclear ambitions.

A source in the US State Department cited by the paper denied the reports.

If the secretive communication is true, it would not be the first channel of secret talks reportedly being held between the countries.

US President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in mid October, reportedly urging a nuclear deal and cooperation on fighting Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in Syria and Iraq.

Likewise, American officials late last month revealed Obama has moved closer to Iran and its terror proxies Hamas and Hezbollah. They noted on secret channels of communications to Iran via senior Shi'ite sources in Iraq.

A senior Israeli diplomatic source last month warned Obama is holding secret talks with Iran - just as he was revealed last November to have been holding secret talks for over half a year prior to the controversial temporary nuclear agreement, and likewise reportedly had been easing sanctions on Iran for five months ahead of the deal.

The moves come as the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) recently stated that Iran has advanced centrifuges capable of producing nuclear weapons-grade uranium at a quantity of five times morethan was previously thought. 

IAEA also revealed Iran is failing to answer key questions over the military aspects of its nuclear program.

For his part, Khamenei on Saturday once again called for the destruction of Israel.