The United States said on Thursday that a nuclear deal is possible within days if Iran “shows seriousness”, AFP reported.
Stating that "substantial progress has been made in the last week," a State Department spokesperson told AFP that "if Iran shows seriousness, we can and should reach an understanding on mutual return to full implementation of the JCPOA within days.”
But "anything much beyond that would put the possibility of return to the deal at grave risk," the spokesperson added.
The remarks come as the indirect talks between the US and Iran, which resumed in Vienna several days ago, continue.
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.
It has held several rounds of indirect negotiations with the Biden administration on a possible return to the deal.
The talks have been mediated by the other signatories to the deal, with US and Iranian representatives not meeting directly.
On Wednesday, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, said that an agreement between Iran and world powers is closer than ever.
"After weeks of intensive talks, we are closer than ever to an agreement; nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, though," he said, according to Reuters.
Iran has insisted that all sanctions that have been imposed on it when Trump left the deal be lifted. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reiterated that demand on Monday, saying, "The rights of the Iranian people must be respected."
Meanwhile, nearly 200 House Republicans have written to President Joe Biden warning that any nuclear deal made with Iran without Congress' approval "will meet the same fate" as the 2015 agreement.
"We will view any agreement reached in Vienna which is not submitted to the US Senate for ratification as a treaty — including any and all secret agreements made with Iran directly or on the sidelines of official talks — as non-binding," the GOP lawmakers wrote to Biden, according to Axios.