"We're basically now in negotiations back to where we were at the end of last summer, which means there's a chance for a deal, and there's also a pretty good chance there's not going to be a deal, and I will tell you we are prepared for either scenario," McGurk said during an interview with the Carnegie Endowment. "We're in the ballpark of a possible deal, but again, I'm not going to put odds on it. There’s a very good chance these talks collapse very soon and then we’re going to shift to something else. We’re ready for that."
JCPOA negotiations resumed n Vienna in December, with expectations that they will conclude sometime in the end of January or start of February.
However, the situation is on the verge of a "nuclear crisis" given Iran’s nuclear program advancements, McGurk said. It is getting to the point where Iran would have enough fissile material to be able to divert material for a weapons program without detection, which is an "extremely serious situation," McGurk added.
US and Israeli officials on Wednesday held a virtual meeting to discuss alternative options to consider should current diplomatic efforts fail to revive the JCPOA, the White House said.
Iran signed the JCPOA alongside Russia, China, the United Kingdom, the European Union, France, Germany and the US in 2015. The Trump administration withdrew from the deal in 2018 and enacted hardline policies against Iran, prompting the latter to largely abandon its obligations under the deal.