Hossein Amir-Abdollahian
Hossein Amir-AbdollahianKirill Kudryavtsev/Pool via REUTERS

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic and world powers are closer than ever to reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.

"If the US acts pragmatically, we are ready to have foreign ministers of countries belonging to the nuclear deal's joint commission gather in Vienna to finalize the agreement," Amir-Abdollahian was quoted by Reuters as having said during a press conference in Damascus alongside his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad.

"We believe that today we are closer to an agreement in Vienna than ever before," added the top Iranian diplomat.

"We have given our latest proposals to the US through the European Union's Coordinator to reach a final deal. We reminded the Americans that we will not cross our red lines," Amir-Abdollahian continued.

Iran has gradually scaled back its compliance with the 2015 deal it signed with world powers, in response to former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement in May of 2018, but has held several rounds of indirect talks with the US on a return to the agreement.

Negotiations nearly reached completion earlier this month before Moscow demanded that its trade with Iran be exempted from Western sanctions over Ukraine, throwing the process into disarray. Negotiators have yet to reconvene in the Austrian capital.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Tuesday that Washington has a "Plan B" if a nuclear deal with Iran is not reached.

"The onus is on Tehran to make decisions that it might consider difficult," Price told reporters.

"In fact we are preparing equally for scenarios with and without a mutual return to full implementation of the JCPOA," he added, referring to the formal name of the 2015 deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.