The American Wall Street Journal quoted a senior official in the administration of President Joe Biden, the administration's willingness to take steps that would ease sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

According to the US official, the sanctions relief may take place even before meeting Iranian officials to discuss the nuclear program, as this step is part of a process in which Iran also takes steps in which it backs down from its nuclear decisions.

The US official considered that the withdrawal of the administration of former President Donald Trump from the JCPOA was a mistake, and that the maximum pressure campaign pursued by that administration was a failure.

The Wall Street Journal also quoted other Western officials as saying that they are about to abandon the start of direct talks between Tehran and Washington in the near future, and are looking for other ways to devise a sequential method for returning to mutual compliance with the nuclear deal.

A senior European diplomat in Tehran said Iran needs to get something but the nature of that is not clear.

And US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said - at the conclusion of the NATO foreign ministers' meetings in Brussels, on Wednesday - that the ball is in Iran's court to return to the diplomatic track on reviving the nuclear deal.

Blinken said - during a press conference - that "when the European Union proposed to gather all participants in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the nuclear agreement) to consider a way to return to implementing the commitments, we expressed our readiness for that, but Iran chose to refuse to participate."

"The ball is now in Iran's court if it wants to return to the diplomatic track and comply with the agreement," he added.

On the other hand, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said - in a speech during a government meeting - that his government will continue to work to lift sanctions on the Iranian people.

He continued, "If the other parties, and we mean the countries of the" 5 + 1 "group, decide to return to work with the nuclear agreement and implement all their obligations, as the leader of the revolution (Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei) confirmed. .

Iran refuses to participate in a dialogue with the United States, mediated by the European Union, to discuss reviving the nuclear agreement concluded between the Iranian side and the "5 + 1" group in 2015.

Tehran asserts that it will continue to break with its obligations in the nuclear deal, unless the administration of US President Joe Biden lifted the sanctions, and says that Washington is required to take the first step if it wants to revive the agreement from which the previous US administration withdrew in 2018.