Progress has been made in negotiations toward reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, but very tough problems remain, a senior US State Department official says.
International representatives and negotiators have been in talks aimed at reviving the Iran Nuclear Deal at a hotel in Vienna, Austria. Photo: Handout / various sources / AFP
"There's been significant progress over the last week or two. We have significantly narrowed the areas that still need to be resolved. And so, in that sense, there has been progress that has been moving towards a potential deal," he told reporters.
"So we are in a better position than we have been. But at the same time it's important to note that very serious issues remain."
The aim of the negotiations is to return to the original 2015 bargain. This would lift sanctions against Iran, including the ones that slashed its oil sales, in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear activities that extend the time Tehran would need to make enough enriched uranium for an atomic bomb if it chose to.
Iran has long denied such an ambition and said that its nuclear program is for solely peaceful purposes.
Iran's lead negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani has gone back to Tehran, and the senior US official said he hopes Kani would return to the talks in Vienna in a positive frame of mind.
The US official also said that there has not been any deal reached in separate negotiations about the release of four US citizens believed to have been wrongfully detained by Iran.
-Reuters