Announcing that the White House has offered a deal to Russia to bring home WNBA star Brittney Griner and another jailed American, Paul Whelan, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said President Joe Biden is willing to "take extraordinary steps" to ensure it happens.
Watch the briefing in the player above.
Kirby made the comments shortly after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Biden's proposal.
"Biden directed his national security team to pursue every avenue to bring Brittany home safely to her family or friends or loved ones or teammates. The U.S. government continues to work aggressively pursuing every avenue to make that happen," Kirby said.
The statements from Blinken and Kirby marked the first time the U.S. government has publicly revealed any concrete action it has taken to secure the release of Griner. It is unclear what the deal is, or whether it will be enough for Russia to release the Americans.
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Kirby also discussed Biden's planned call for Thursday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, their first conversation in four months.
Kirby said Biden is "looking forward to this conversation" and in "keeping the lines of communication open" with Xi.
He said the two leaders will discuss economic frictions as well as tensions over Taiwan, but added that Biden "will reaffirm that there's no change to America's commitment to the One China policy."
When asked about reports that the Iran nuclear deal will not be "revived as it is," Kirby said negotiations are pretty well complete and "the onus is now on Iran to decide whether they're going to take that deal or not."
Kirby also shot down as "ludicrous" a question about whether the Saudi government may have deliberately exposed President Biden to the coronavirus.