Joe Biden
Joe BidenReuters

The United States and Iran will soon begin to hold informal talks to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program and the steps necessary to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, the New York Times reported Thursday.

American and European diplomats told the Times that the talks could begin in the coming weeks.

Both sides have expressed their desire to return to the 015 agreement, which former US President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018. The Biden Administration has called on Iran to end its violations of the deal before lifting sanctions, while Iran has demanded that the US end all sanctions imposed by the Trump Administration as a precondition to returning to the deal.

The Biden Administration has expressed its desire to negotiate a "better" deal which would fix many of the problems with the original agreement, including extending the sunset clauses and addressing Iran's ballistic missile program. However, Iran has categorically rejected any change to the nuclear deal.

Israel and America's Arab allies in the Middle East have expressed their opposition to a full return to the 2015 agreement, which they say rewards Iran with funds to spread terror across the Middle East while paving the way for Iran to develop nuclear weapons in the not-to-distant future.

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported Monday that Iran has begun enriching uranium using advanced IR-2M centrifuges at the Natanz underground facility in the latest breach of the 2015 nuclear deal.

In January, Iran began enriching uranium to 20% in violation of the 2015 nuclear deal which capped Iran's enrichment levels at 3.67%. Last month, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened to begin enriching uranium up to 60%. Uranium must be enriched to 90% to develop a nuclear weapon.

Iran has also begun the process of creating uranium metal, a process for which there is no civilian use.