Reports of President Joe Biden's administration's intention to lift sanctions revealed Iranian mentor Ali Khamenei.

This comes after United States Secretary of State Anthony Plinkin threatened to withdraw from the Vienna negotiations.

A former US official and sources close to the ongoing negotiations with Iran said the lifting of sanctions was an effort to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran.

It should be noted that sources revealed that the issue had been raised during indirect negotiations between American and Iranian negotiators during the Vienna talks, aimed at reviving the nuclear agreement.

According to an American official, the negotiators discussed the possible step "as part of a broader set of compromises that will see a return to the agreement."

Earlier, the US Secretary of State had confirmed that Washington's withdrawal from nuclear talks with Iran was approaching, without setting a firm date.

Those statements dispelled any hopes that had recovered over the course of six rounds of talks that an agreement with Iran was on the doorstep.

It will be recalled that observers returned the reason for the statements, because Tehran refused to respond to the request for an extension of the Interim Control Agreement with the IAEA, which the two sides reached last February.

Iran also insists that it is not obliged to provide an answer, and places a difficult condition for its retreat from its nuclear steps, stressing that this will not happen before all US sanctions are lifted.

Iran continues to escalate the situation with regard to international concerns about its nuclear activities and compliance with its obligations under the nuclear agreement, with the United States Secretary of State considering that Tehran's continued development of its nuclear programme may soon become an insurmountable obstacle.

As for the European position, it was based on calm, and it called on Iran to respond immediately to the IAEA's request for an extension of the agreement, before attempts to revive the nuclear deal reached an impasse.