The eighth round of negotiations related to Iran's nuclear program will resume Monday in Vienna, after being suspended last Thursday for three days due to the year-end holiday.

The chief Iranian negotiator, Ali Bagheri, described the negotiation process as positive, stressing that an agreement could be reached in a short time if the opposing party was serious about lifting sanctions.

After the suspension of negotiations last Thursday, Bagheri added, "We hope for more serious work in the field of lifting sanctions with the resumption of negotiations later."

Before announcing the suspension of negotiations, the Iranian chief negotiator met with the heads of delegations of European countries, along with the European Union representative in the negotiations, Enrique Mora.


Western position

For their part, the three Western countries participating in the negotiations, namely France, Britain and Germany, warned of the pressure of time, as the time available is measured in weeks and not in months, as they put it.

European sources close to the Vienna negotiations said last Thursday that the path of the nuclear commitments is going in a good direction, but that "the dispute over the lifting of sanctions is still deep."

"We are still below the required level of work to revive the nuclear agreement," the sources added.

Western sources in Vienna had quoted Bagheri as confirming the peaceful nature of his country's nuclear program, and its readiness to subject it to monitoring.

Iran demands that a mechanism be put in place to verify the lifting of US sanctions in any agreement reached during the Vienna negotiations on its nuclear program, and to obtain guarantees that no US withdrawal will be repeated after the agreement.

According to observers, these guarantees are predominantly political and economic in nature, while others see them as military and nuclear.