"The announced suspension in negotiations is intended to resolve the remaining issues and nuances of the final agreement", Khatibzadeh said, as quoted by the Tasnim news agency.
At the same time, the European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for a suspension of the JCPOA talks on 11 March, citing "external factors". He noted that the text was "essentially ready and on the table", but did not elaborate on what prompted the hiccup to its approval and signing by the parties to the original deal.
Borrell further said that he and his team would continue to be in touch with all participants of the talks as well as the US, whose interests the EU represents in the negotiations. Nor did the EU foreign policy chief elaborate on what specific "external factors" affected the JCPOA talks.
Negotiations on restoring the Iran nuclear deal have been ongoing since 2021, but had until recently shown little success. The US accused Tehran of pushing unrealistic demands, while Iran said it wouldn't agree to anything less than a reliable and lasting lifting of all sanctions.
The statements by Khatibzadeh and Borrell indicate progress being made towards reaching a deal that is expected to allow Iran to once again trade with other countries, including selling its energy resources. Coincidentally, the apparent breakthrough in the negotiations takes place amid promises by the EU to ditch Russian gas and oil over the situation in Ukraine and the US ban on Russian energy resources.