Washington: Possibility of Reaching an Agreement with Iran in Days

The U.S. State Department announced "substantial progress" in the Vienna negotiations regarding a return to the nuclear deal with Iran, noting that an agreement could be reached "within days." A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department stated to AFP on Thursday that "significant progress was made last week." They added, "If Iran shows seriousness, we can and should reach an understanding on mutual compliance with the nuclear deal within days." The spokesperson also mentioned that "anything significantly different from that could put the possibility of returning to the deal at great risk." Earlier, both the Russian envoy in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, and the head of the Iranian delegation to the negotiations, Ali Bagheri Kani, confirmed that the negotiating parties are "closer than ever" to an agreement. The eighth round of negotiations is taking place in Vienna regarding a return to the Iranian nuclear agreement reached in 2015, from which Iran halted many of its commitments in response to the U.S. withdrawal from the deal.