The United States of America said that it was too early to judge any progress in the Vienna negotiations, while Russian and Iranian officials expressed optimism about the talks in the eighth round, which started last Monday, amid European stress on the "urgency".

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that his country had not yet noticed a sufficient sense of urgency on the part of Iran, adding that Washington wanted the parties to the talks to seek constructively and steadily to build on progress.

And Price said - in statements reported by the American network "CNN" - that Washington has not changed its initial positions on Iran.

These statements came after Russian and Iranian officials expressed an optimistic tone about the negotiations on the second day of the launch of the eighth round last Monday to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and Western countries.

Iran and the United States resumed the eighth round of indirect talks in Vienna, with Tehran focusing on one aspect of the original agreement - the lifting of sanctions, despite what critics see as little progress on curbing its nuclear activities.

The seventh round of talks ended 11 days ago by adding some new Iranian demands to the text that is being worked on.

Russian-Iranian optimism

For his part, the Russian envoy to the nuclear talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, said that a working group was making progress.

"Lifting sanctions is actively being discussed in informal talks," he wrote on Twitter.

In Tehran, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said in statements to reporters broadcast by local media that "the Vienna talks are going in the right direction... We believe that if the other parties continue the round of talks, which has just begun, in good faith, a good agreement can be reached for all parties." ".


'urgency'

For their part, the European parties stressed the "urgency" to complete the negotiations by reviving the nuclear agreement with Iran, at a time when Tehran was accused of getting "too close" to the stockpile of uranium needed to build a nuclear bomb.

In a statement on Tuesday, France, Germany and Britain said that technical progress had been made in the latest round and that the parties now need to focus fully on the main outstanding issues, especially the nuclear aspects and sanctions.

The three countries added that they did not set a deadline for the talks, but added that there were only weeks - not months - left to reach an agreement.

"We are clearly saying that we are approaching the point where Iran's escalation of its nuclear program has completely emptied the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action," the statement said.

The three countries added, "Negotiation is urgent, and our teams here are working quickly and in good faith to reach an agreement."

The European Union coordinator for the Vienna negotiations, Enrique Mora, expected that an agreement on reviving the nuclear agreement with Iran would be reached within weeks, CBS News reported.

Israeli position

In contrast, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged world powers to take a tougher stance in the nuclear talks underway in Vienna.

"Of course there can be a good agreement, of course we know the criteria, is that expected to happen now in the current circumstances? No, because there has to be a firmer position," Bennett said - in an interview with Israel Army Radio on Tuesday morning.

Bennett considered that Iran is negotiating from a very weak position, but unfortunately the world is behaving as if it is strong, according to his description.

He added that his government has built a practical strategy to deal with what he called the Iranian threat, not limited to the nuclear project alone.

He stressed that Tehran has surrounded his country with hundreds of thousands of missiles over a period of 30 years, and this is what must be set back, as he put it.