'N-deal possible if Iran makes political decision'

WASHINGTON: A US State Department official said Washington and Tehran could achieve a mutual return to compliance with the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal in the coming weeks if the Islamic Republic makes a "political decision".

The official said in a phone briefing on Thursday that the last three rounds of indirect talks between the US and Iran in Vienna "helped crystallise the choices", but noting "nothing has been agreed" on how to revive the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reports Xinhua news agency.

"If Iran makes the political decision that it genuinely wants to return to the JCPOA as the JCPOA was negotiated, then it could be done relatively quickly and implementation could be relatively swift," the official told reporters.

"But we don't know if Iran has made that decision. There's still a lot of work to do in terms of agreeing on the sanctions, nuclear steps, but also the sequencing and the timetable for implementation of the steps that both sides are going to need to take," he said.

The official suggested that it is possible for Washington and Tehran to achieve a mutual return to compliance in the next few weeks, while stressing "this is ultimately a matter of a political decision that needs to be made in Iran". The US delegation will return to Vienna this week for a new round of indirect talks with Iran.

"We just have to see whether the next round actually moves things forward, or whether we still are faced with unrealistic demands by Iran," said the official. Abbas Araqchi, Iran's senior negotiator in Vienna talks, said last week that negotiating parties have reached "common ground in many cases", but there were still differences. (IANS)

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