Today, Saturday, Washington denied reports that it accepted new concessions to Iran in order to return to the nuclear agreement, while Tehran announced its position on the condition that the name of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard be removed from the US terrorist lists during the negotiations.

A US State Department spokesman told Al Jazeera that "if Iran is ready to comply with the 2015 agreement, we are ready to do the same."

"We have received Iran's response to the final proposal from the European Union and are studying it, and we are in regular contact with the European Union and our talks with it are private," the official added.

CNN had quoted a US official as saying that reaching an agreement on Iran's nuclear program is closer now than it was two weeks ago, but the result is still uncertain because there are some points of contention, as he put it.

The US official stressed that Iran is demanding compensation if Washington withdrew from the nuclear deal again.


4 stages

In the latest developments in the file of reviving the nuclear agreement, Al Jazeera learned from informed sources that the European proposal to revive the nuclear agreement includes 4 phases, and two periods of time, each lasting 60 days.

It also includes the gradual lifting of economic sanctions on Iran, the release of part of its frozen funds and allowing it to export oil in return for its retreat from enrichment steps.

Russia's permanent representative to international organizations, Mikhail Ulyanov, had expressed his hope that an agreement would be reached to revive the nuclear agreement before the first of next September.

Ulyanov added that he had the impression that Washington wanted to resolve other outstanding issues not related to the nuclear deal.

Marandi said that deleting the name of the Revolutionary Guards was not a condition of any agreement (European - Archive)

Terror lists

In a related matter, Muhammad Marandi, an adviser to the Iranian negotiating team in Vienna, said that deleting the name of the Revolutionary Guards was not a condition for any agreement, and that Tehran would keep the US Central Command in the Middle East on its list of terrorism.

Earlier, Marandi told Al Jazeera that the currently offered agreement differs from the one that Iran witnessed 7 or 8 months ago, adding that his country is waiting for the American response to the text of the agreement and Iranian fears, expecting that this will not take long.

The Iranian official indicated that Tehran was keen in the negotiations this time that there would be no loopholes that the US side would exploit for its own benefit, and that the potential agreement would be fully implemented.

Since the resumption of the stalled Vienna nuclear negotiations last November, Iran has adhered to the need to reach a good and strong agreement that preserves its national interests and does not cross its red lines, including the lifting of US sanctions, especially on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.