TEHRAN and Washington are close to resolving their nuclear dispute, Iranian President Hassan Rowhani said on Thursday following six weeks of indirect negotiations in Vienna.

The deal is more or less done, he said, adding that there are just “a few details” that still need to be resolved.

The lifting of key sanctions in areas such as oil exports, Iran’s central bank, and the shipping industry has already been agreed upon.

“All five partner countries in Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal are in agreement,’’ Rowhani said on Iranian state television.

Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia have been negotiating with Iran and the United States in Vienna for the past six weeks in the hope of restoring the 2015 accord aimed at preventing Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.

The deal has been hanging by a thread since 2018 when then U.S. President Donald Trump pulled his country out and Tehran began to increasingly violate its terms.

The talks have centered on which sanctions Washington would be prepared to lift and what steps Tehran would be willing to take in return to curb its nuclear program.

Negotiations are set to resume next week.

Tehran has repeatedly said it will return to its obligations under the Vienna accord as soon as Washington lifts its sanctions.

This includes extending its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and allowing UN inspectors to return to the country’s nuclear sites. (Dpa/NAN)