A top State Department official once again declined to explain on Wednesday the reason Special Envoy to Iran Rob Malley was placed on leave, 10 months after his absence began.

Malley was first informed he was under investigation for mishandling protected information and that his security clearance was suspended last April, though it did not become public knowledge until June. The department has refused to explain the reason behind the move, while a spokesperson told the Washington Examiner in August that the department does not "comment on individual security clearances" and that it has "nothing further to share due to privacy considerations."

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Deputy Special Envoy to Iran Abram Paley once again declined to provide any explanation during his testimony in front of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on Wednesday.

"Unfortunately, I'm not in a position today to speak to personnel or security clearance issues," he said.

"I'm in charge of the day-to-day implementation of our Iran policy at the department, and nothing has changed in terms of our implementation of that policy," Paley added when asked about how Malley's absence is affecting the envoy's office's efforts. "We work across the department and across the interagency to continue to advance President Biden and Secretary Blinken's focus on countering Iran, which remains a top adversary, state sponsor of terrorism."

Malley had spearheaded President Joe Biden’s U.S. efforts to restart the 2015 Iran nuclear deal since 2021, but negotiators failed to make a breakthrough, and the State Department has said it's no longer on its agenda. He was one of the main architects of the original deal under the Obama administration.

In July, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul questioned whether Malley may have “transferred intelligence and secrets to our foreign nation adversary,” which he said “would be treason in my view.”

Tension between Tehran and Washington has increased in recent weeks as Iranian-backed groups in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq have carried out attacks against U.S. forces. In Yemen, the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have repeatedly targeted commercial vessels in the nearby waterways, and they have said they would continue to carry out such attacks until Israel ended its war with Hamas in Gaza.

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The U.S. is now looking to allies to work together to protect ships in the region, while the U.S. has refrained from responding militarily to these attacks.

U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, which are stationed there as a part of the effort to ensure the lasting defeat of the Islamic State, have been attacked dozens of times by militias that have Iran's support. There have been roughly 90 attacks against U.S. troops since Oct. 17, when the department noticed the increase in attacks, which was less than two weeks after war broke out in Israel.