On Wednesday, diplomats from major powers met separately with leaders from Iran and the United States, to discuss how to bring both countries back into the fold of the nuclear deal, which was abandoned three years ago.

As the talks began in Vienna earlier this week, neither the United States nor Iran expect any fast breakthroughs in the talks, with European and other diplomats acting as intermediaries - as Tehran has rejected face-to-face engagement for the moment.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal, which lifted economic sanctions on Iran in return for curbs to its nuclear program. He reimposed U.S. sanctions, prompting Iran in turn to violate the accord’s atomic limits.

The deal’s remaining parties - Iran, United Kingdom, China, France, Germany and Russia - agreed on Tuesday to form two expert-level groups whose job is to marry lists of sanctions that the United States could lift with nuclear obligations Iran should potentially meet.

According to a statement from the State Department on Wednesday, the United States is prepared to remove sanctions on Iran to resume compliance with the Iran nuclear deal, including those that are inconsistent with the original 2015 agreement.

The statement added that “We are prepared to take the steps necessary to return to compliance with the JCPOA, including by lifting sanctions that are inconsistent with the JCPOA. I am not in a position here to give you chapter and verse on what those might be".