‘US offers sanctions relief to Iran’

NEW DELHI/PARIS: The US government has made it known that it is exploring the idea of lifting some of the economic sanctions imposed on Iran while nuclear talks between the two countries are underway, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The reported development is an important milestone in the ongoing negotiations between the two countries, whose officials have been indirectly holding discussions in Vienna.

Talks are taking place as part of an international push to bring the US back into the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal while also persuading Tehran to scale back its ambitious nuclear programme.

European parties to the Iran deal have said they have seen progress in the first two rounds of negotiations to revive the 2015 accord, but cautioned that there were still major hurdles to overcome. The negotiations will pick up again next week.

Iran and world powers - Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia - have been meeting in Vienna since early April to hammer out steps that must be taken, touching on US sanctions and Tehran’s breaches of the deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment capacity. A US delegation is in a separate location in Vienna, enabling the powers to shuttle between both sides.

“We welcome the constructive discussions that have taken place in Vienna, and the positive participation by all sides so far,” diplomats from France, Britain and Germany, known as the E3, told reporters. “We have made some progress but there is still a way to go.” Under the accord, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear work in return for the lifting of US-backed sanctions.