The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell announced on Monday that he believed the United States would confirm its support this week for an EU proposal to salvage the Iran nuclear deal.
Borrell said that Iran reacted with a “reasonable” response to the offer, Reuters reported.
The development comes after 16 months of mostly stalled talks between the US and Iran, brokered by the EU, that have not produced results.
Details of the proposal have not been released.
“There was a proposal from me as coordinator of the negotiations saying ‘this is the equilibrium we reached, I don’t think we can improve it on one side or the other’… and there was a response from Iran that I considered reasonable,” Borrell said at a university event in Santander, Spain.
“It was transmitted to the United States which has not yet responded formally… I hope the response will put an end to the negotiations.”
The proposal was described by an EU official as its “final offer” to salvage the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement that the Trump administration withdrew from in 2018.
On Monday, Nasser Kanaani, a spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, blamed the US for "procrastination" regarding the renewal of the nuclear deal, Maariv reported.
Kanaani made his comments at a press conference, claiming that Iran wants a lasting nuclear agreement which will protect its legitimate rights.
"Nothing is final until everything is agreed on," Kanaani added, emphasizing that the progress in negotiations has been "relatively good."