A senior Iranian security official said on Sunday that progress in talks to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal was becoming "more difficult" and accused Western powers of "pretending" to come up with initiatives.
"The work of Iranian negotiators towards progress is becoming more difficult every moment ... while Western parties 'pretend' to come up with initiatives to avoid their commitments," Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said on Twitter, according to Reuters.
The comments came days after the talks to revive the 2015 deal with Iran on its nuclear program resumed in Vienna.
Iran has gradually scaled back its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal it signed with world powers in response to former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement in May of 2018.
However, it has held several rounds of indirect talks with the US on reviving the deal. The talks are being mediated by the remaining five countries that are party to the deal.
Negotiators from the three European countries involved in the negotiations recently said the talks are reaching their final stage and now require political input.
Shamkhani said last week that Washington and Tehran had so far failed to produce "balance" in their commitments during the Vienna talks.
Meanwhile, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that talks with Iran have reached an urgent point and warned that it will be impossible to return to the Iran nuclear deal if an agreement is not reached in coming weeks.