Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday he was optimistic over talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and suggested a deal had been reached to lift the main sanctions on Tehran, state media reported.
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Only the details remained to be agreed upon, Rouhani said, though there was no immediate confirmation from US officials or from the other parties to the accord.
"We've reached a point where the Americans and the Europeans are saying openly they have no choice but to lift sanctions and return to the [nuclear deal], and that almost all main sanctions have been lifted and talks continue on some details," Rouhani was quoted by state media as saying. He did not elaborate.
Sanctions on Iran could only be lifted if the country comes back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement, the White House said on Friday.
There has been some progress made in talks between world powers and Iran, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, and it is a good sign that talks are continuing.
US officials returned to Vienna this week for the fourth round of indirect talks with Iran on how to resume compliance with the deal, which former US President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, prompting Iran to begin violating its terms about a year later.
The crux of the agreement was that Iran committed to taking steps to rein in its nuclear program to make it harder to obtain the fissile material for a nuclear weapon in return for relief from US, EU, and UN sanctions.
Tehran denies having nuclear weapons ambitions.
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif said earlier on Saturday that the United States had an obligation to help revive the nuclear deal after US President Joe Biden said it was unclear how serious Tehran was about talks on the accord.
Asked if he thought Tehran was serious about talks, Biden replied: "Yes, but how serious, and what they are prepared to do is a different story."
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