With Tehran and Moscow announcing that an agreement is possible, Iran and Russia have expressed optimism about talks to salvage the 2015 nuclear agreement, while Israel has announced that it is preparing for a possible military strike against Iran.

Despite what critics see as negligible progress in curbing its nuclear activities, Iran and the United States resumed indirect talks in Vienna yesterday, with Tehran focusing on one aspect of the original agreement, namely the lifting of sanctions against it.

In Tehran, Foreign Minister Hussein Amir Abdel - Lahian told reporters that "the Vienna talks are heading in the right direction... We believe that if the other parties continue the round of talks, which has just begun, in good faith, a good agreement can be reached for all parties. "

Amir Abdel - Lahian added in video footage broadcast by the official media that "if they seem serious, along with good will, an agreement can be reached quickly and in the near future."

For his part, the Russian envoy for the nuclear talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, wrote on Twitter, "We note an undisputed progress. The lifting of sanctions is effectively discussed in informal talks "in a working group.

11 days ago, the seventh round of talks ended with the addition of some new Iranian demands to the text being worked on.

European powers, for their part, have said that the talks have not made significant progress since their first resumption following the election of Iranian President Ibrahim Major last June.

They added that negotiators had "weeks, not months," before the 2015 agreement lost value.

Iran refuses to meet directly with US officials, so the other parties to the agreement - Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union - travel in separate meetings.

The United States has repeatedly resented this formula, saying that it slows down the process, and Western officials continue to have doubts that Iran is simply playing to buy time.