The European Union's foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell suggested there was no more room for negotiation on the draft now on the table.
“What can be negotiated has been negotiated, and it’s now in a final text,” Borrell wrote on Twitter. “However, behind every technical issue and every paragraph lies a political decision that needs to be taken in the capitals.”
The US described the tabled draft as “the best and only basis on which to reach a deal.”
“For our part, our position is clear: we stand ready to quickly conclude a deal on the basis of the EU’s proposals,” the State Department said, indicating the deal's restoration was up to Iran, according to AP.
“They (Iran) repeatedly say they are prepared for a return to mutual implementation,” the spokesperson added. “Let’s see if their actions match their words.”
Iran, for its part, sounded guarded, raising skepticism about the chances for a breakthrough after a monthslong stalemate.
“Naturally the cases require comprehensive study,” IRNA quoted an anonymous senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official as saying. “We will transfer our views and supplementary points.”
Monday’s news comes a day after the European Union’s senior negotiator said negotiations between Iran and the US on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal are close to completion, though he also noted that Iran must still decide whether to set aside its demand that the nuclear deal can only be revived if a multiyear United Nations atomic agency probe into its nuclear program is closed.
Iran scaled back its compliance with the 2015 deal, in response to former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement in May of 2018, but has held several rounds of indirect talks with the US on a return to the agreement.
An agreement was nearly reached before the talks stopped in March.
In June, Iran began removing essentially all the monitoring equipment installed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) under the 2015 nuclear deal.
The talks resumed last Thursday after Iran softened one of its remaining demands: the lifting of terror sanctions on its elite Revolutionary Guard Corps.
On Saturday, Iran's Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called for a "realistic response" from the United States to Iranian proposals at indirect talks in Vienna.
The Foreign Minister “stressed the need for a realistic US response to Iran's constructive proposals on various issues to make the deal work," state media reported, without providing details on the proposals.
