Sanctions relief in exchange for freezing certain nuclear activities. Axios: Washington seeks interim agreement with Iran

The American website "Axios" on Monday quoted Israeli, American and Western sources as saying that the administration of US President Joe Biden is examining the possibility of reaching a partial agreement with Iran on its nuclear file.

In recent weeks, the Biden administration has discussed with its European and Israeli partners a proposal for an interim agreement with Tehran, which would include sanctions relief in exchange for Iran freezing parts of its nuclear program.

Axios pointed out that Iran has rejected the US proposal for the time being, pointing out that President Biden is committed to Tehran not acquiring a nuclear weapon, and sees diplomacy as the best way to achieve this.

In late March, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian stressed that the doors to nuclear negotiations would not remain open indefinitely.

He added that Iranian parliamentarians will pass a bill that would limit the government's time frame for nuclear negotiations.

For its part, the Israeli website Walla reported that the White House appears to be seeking to stop Tehran's progress on its nuclear program, buy time, and delay the timing of a decision regarding the use of the military option.

Last month, Axios quoted Israeli officials as saying that Israel had told Washington and Western countries that it could launch a military strike on Iran if it enriched uranium above 60 percent.

In February, the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency announced that particles of uranium had been found more than 80 percent enriched.

At the time, the IAEA said it had found 83.7 percent enriched uranium particles in Iran, just under the 90 percent needed to produce an atomic bomb, without being able to determine whether that threshold had been reached accidentally or intentionally.

But Tehran, which denies it intends to acquire a nuclear weapon, spoke of an "unintended build-up" due to technical difficulties with centrifuges used for enrichment, in a letter to the IAEA.

Diplomats from Iran, the United States and five other countries are negotiating a deal to reimpose curbs on Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions reimposed by former U.S. President Donald Trump after Washington withdrew from the deal in May 5. But negotiations to revive the 2018 deal between world powers and Iran over its nuclear program have stalled since August 2015.