Three members of the US team negotiating a return to the Iran nuclear deal recently stepped down in protest over the Biden administration's conciliatory approach toward the Islamic republic.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, US officials confirmed that Richard Nephew, the deputy special envoy for Iran, had left the team.
Nephew, an architect of previous economic sanctions on Iran, had "advocated a tougher posture in the current negotiations, and he hasn't attended the talks in Vienna since early December," the report said.
Two other members of the team, which is headed by State Department veteran and Special Iran Envoy Robert Malley, have also removed themselves from the talks because they also "wanted a harder negotiating stance," according to the WSJ.
Among the issues that have divided the negotiating team, the report added, are how firmly to enforce existing sanctions and whether to sever negotiations as Iran drags them out while advancing its nuclear program.
Meanwhile, officials in Tehran have said they are willing to meet with Biden's representatives if the need should arise in light of recent progress in the talks.
On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron told his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi that the talks need to accelerate.
France, Germany and Britain, known as E3, and the United States are trying to save the 2015 Vienna agreement with Iran but Western diplomats have said negotiations, which have been in their eighth round since Dec. 27, were moving too slowly.
Iran has rejected any deadline imposed by Western powers.
Raisi said last week that a revival of the 2015 nuclear deal is possible if the US removes sanctions that have crippled the Islamic republic's economy.
"If the other party removes the unjust sanctions, there will be a possibility to revive the pact," Raisi told Iran's state TV.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
