Iran deputy FM: differences 'now clearer' in Vienna talks

High-ranking diplomats from China, Germany, France, Russia and the UK made progress at talks Saturday focused on bringing the United States back into their landmark nuclear deal with Iran, but said they need more work and time to bring about a future agreement.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, has been leading Tehran's delegation at the Vienna talks.

He told Iranian state TV the text of an agreement "in some areas" had started being written, but added progress was being made "very slowly".

"In many cases there are common views, and there are still differences in some areas. The differences are now clearer", he said.

After the meeting, Russia's top representative, Mikhail Ulyanov, tweeted that members of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, "noted today the indisputable progress made at the Vienna talks on restoration of the nuclear deal".

"The Joint Commission will reconvene at the end of the next week", Ulyanov wrote.

"In the meantime, experts will continue to draft elements of future agreement."

The three Western European countries involved in the talks struck a more restrained note.

"We have much work and little time left. Against that background, we would have hoped for more progress this week", the senior diplomats said talking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to be publicly named.

The US did not have a representative at the table when the diplomats met in Vienna because former President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the country out of the deal in 2018.

Trump also restored and augmented sanctions to try to force Iran into renegotiating the pact with more concessions.

US President Joe Biden wants to rejoin the deal, however, and a US delegation in Vienna was taking part in indirect talks with Iran, with diplomats from the other world powers acting as go-betweens.

The Biden administration is considering a rollback of some of the most stringent Trump-era sanctions in a bid to get Iran to come back into compliance with the nuclear agreement, according current and former US officials and others familiar with the matter.