Referring to the current process of Vienna negotiations to revive the JCPOA, Foreign Minister Zarif said that there is a possibility of reaching an agreement before the end of Hassan Rouhani's administration.

In an interview on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Mohammad Javad Zarif in response to a question about the prospects of the formation of a new administration of the Islamic Republic of Iran on "Vienna" talks on reviving the JCPOA said that an agreement will probably be reached before the end of Hassan Rouhani's administration.

"Negotiations are underway on the JCPOA. There is a good chance that an agreement will be reached before the end of our tenure. We will hand over the power to the new administration in mid-August and I think we will probably be able to reach an agreement long before that date," Zarif said.

"I have seen the latest edited draft of the agreement," he added regarding the current Vienna negotiation process. "The draft has become purer. The parentheses [the issues of the dispute] are being removed."

In response to a question about the current obstacles to the final agreement on the JCPOA, Zarif said, "The main remaining obstacle is understanding these issues. The United States must understand that it was a party that left the agreement with intention, and their goal was not achieved, and now that they want to return to the agreement, they cannot achieve the goal that was not achieved through economic war, through the negotiation table."

"The US needs to come to that understanding, and I can say that we came a little bit closer to that, but we didn't get there," the Iranian FM noted. "The issue that remains is how to verify the fulfilment of US commitments because the fulfilment of our commitments is being verified by International Atomic Energy Agency, but how to verify the fulfilment of US commitments remains unclear."

"We kept our commitments even after the United States left and a year later. The United States has not lived up to its commitments, so the party that needs to reassure us is the United States, and that is an obstacle to negotiations," Zarif highlighted.

He went on to say, "I think the Biden administration now understands that the policies of the Donald Trump administration have failed, but it is still trying to use those policies as leverage, and that is why the perceptual problem persists. I think they should put aside the fact that sanctions are their property. Sanctions are illegal. Unfortunately, European countries have been forced to surrender to US sanctions policies, but that does not mean that they accept this policy."

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Turkey on Thursday at the official invitation of his Turkish counterpart Mevl�t �avu?o?lu to attend Antalya Diplomacy Forum (ADF).

The Antalya Diplomacy Forum is hosting 12 heads of state, 43 foreign ministers, four former heads of state, representatives of international organizations, intellectuals, and academics.