US State Department spokesman Ned Price affirmed his country's readiness to return to the nuclear agreement with Iran if Tehran is ready to do so, and warned that Washington will increase its economic and diplomatic pressure on Tehran if it refuses to return to the agreement.

Price added - in statements during his regular meeting with the media - that the only way to return to mutual compliance is for Iran to abandon its demands outside the agreement, and said that diplomacy is the best way to put restrictions on Tehran's nuclear program.

Price made it clear that his country shares the European Union's foreign and security policy chief, Josep Laurel, in his opinion that what can be negotiated on the Iranian nuclear file has been completed.

He said that the United States will present its views on the final draft text of the European Union to save the 2015 nuclear agreement in private and directly to Borrell, noting that Washington will not reveal its response to the European proposal.


Beginning of the End

Tehran had announced that it would respond to the European proposal by midnight today, Monday, stressing the possibility of reaching the nuclear agreement soon, but it conditioned this on the flexibility of the US position and the fulfillment of its demands to lift sanctions.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said that Washington had verbally agreed to two of his country's demands during the Vienna negotiations, considering that the verbal consent should be converted into a clear and binding official text.

Abdullahian added, "We have reached the beginning of the end for concluding the agreement, but that depends on the US position," stressing that his country will respond to the "final" text of the European Union on the nuclear deal by midnight today.

He considered that the other side is talking about an alternative plan in case the agreement fails, and that his country has an alternative plan as well, stressing the need for a clear mechanism to verify the lifting of sanctions in any agreement that is reached.

The Iranian foreign minister revealed that his country exchanges messages with Washington on 3 issues, and said, "We have shown flexibility in the nuclear negotiations and it is time for Washington to be flexible."

The minister believed that Washington should show useful flexibility, as it is on the threshold of midterm elections and suffers from a severe fuel problem, as he put it.


lift sanctions

In turn, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said this morning, Monday, that there is a relative development in the negotiations of the nuclear agreement, but it has not achieved all of his country's demands, stressing that they are waiting for the lifting of sanctions.

Kanaani added, in an interview with reporters, that there is a possibility that Iran will sign the agreement in the coming days if its demands are respected.

In this context, Al-Jazeera correspondent in Tehran said that the experts are currently studying the European proposal for the nuclear agreement, and they are scheduled to submit their report to the Iranian National Security Council to take the final decision.

The correspondent pointed out that the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman did not comment on what was previously circulated in media reports regarding setting the date of today, August 15, as a deadline for presenting Tehran's position.

He stated that the failure to reach a solution to the nature of the relationship between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency is the main obstacle to negotiations so far.

On Sunday, Russia's permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, said that an agreement to revive the Iranian nuclear deal might be reached within a few days, if things developed positively.

He added that the European Union coordinators had made several amendments to the currently proposed text, and that "it seems that the United States has agreed, while Iran has not yet determined its position on the text."