SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Iranian foreign ministry said on Monday Iran and six world powers had made significant progress in talks to revive their 2015 nuclear but important issues still need to be resolved.
The seven countries have negotiated in Vienna since April to work out steps that Iran and the United States must take on sanctions and nuclear activities to return to full compliance with the nuclear pact.
“Each round of talks in Vienna could have been the final round. We should not rush. We have made significant progress but key issues remain,” said Iranian foreign ministry’s spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh, according to Reuters.
“There has been no stalemate on the Vienna talks,” he told a televised weekly news conference.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump ditched the deal three years ago and reimposed sanctions on Iran.
Iran has been rebuilding stockpiles of low-enriched uranium, enriching it to higher levels of fissile purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up production.
U.S. President Joe Biden has said the United States will return to the deal if Iran first resumes compliance with its strict limits on uranium enrichment.
“All sanctions should be lifted and then it should be verified by Iran…then we will reverse our nuclear steps,” Reuters cited Khatibzadeh as saying.
A regional diplomat, briefed by Western officials involved in the talks, told Reuters that “an agreement that would clarify the obligations of Tehran and Washington to move forward” will be announced in Vienna this week.
