The Iranian nuclear deal...a new round of negotiations next week, and Washington is threatening to keep the sanctions after the agreement

Iran's chief negotiator at the Vienna talks Abbas Araqchi said that the next round of negotiations will start next week, and it is too early to speculate on whether it will be the final round.

Araqchi added after a meeting with members of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, that the remaining points of contention are not new, and they are about how all parties can return to the nuclear agreement.

For his part, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the nuclear agreement is the only path that will lead to the lifting of sanctions, noting that during the past three years, the United States launched an economic war against Iran that the world has not witnessed.

However, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that US sanctions "will continue to apply to Tehran, even if Iran returns to compliance with the nuclear deal."

"I expect that even in the event of a return to compliance with the JCPOA, hundreds of sanctions will still be in place, including those imposed by the (former President Donald) Trump administration," Blinken added in a hearing before the US Senate.

"We don't know if Iran is willing and able to return to the JCPOA commitment," he added.

Searching for answers

In the same context, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said that the agency was not able to achieve the progress that it aspired to with Iran on several issues.

Grossi added in an interview with Al Jazeera that it is very important so far that the agency can continue its work bilaterally with Iran, stressing the need to continue working to find answers to the questions put to Iran about the effects of uranium particles in different parts of its territory.

In the Austrian capital, the meetings of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors are continuing for the third day in a row, as the file of safeguards and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is discussed for the Iranian nuclear file.

And last April, the Vienna talks began to revive the nuclear agreement between Iran and major countries, after the Trump administration withdrew from it in May 2018.

Following the withdrawal, Washington imposed economic sanctions on Tehran in August, followed by oil sanctions in November of the same year.