"We presented an innovative new political package two days ago and explicitly told the other side [the United States] that they could choose one of two proposals [the one discussed in Vienna or the new one]. We prefer the diplomatic and political path," Abdollahian was quoted as saying by Iranian news agency ISNA.
The top Iranian diplomat did not specify the content of the new proposal.
In 2015, Iran signed a nuclear deal, known officially as the JCPOA with the P5+1 group, which includes the United States, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany and the European Union. It required Tehran to scale back its nuclear program and drastically reduce its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief, including the lifting of an arms embargo five years after the deal was made.
In 2018, the Trump administration withdrew from the JCPOA and reimposed sanctions on Iran, to which the latter responded with a gradual abandoning of its own commitments under the deal. Several packages of US sanctions against Iran have since been imposed.
Vienna has been hosting talks since April 2021, aimed at preventing the Iran nuclear deal from failing altogether. However, in March 2022, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced a pause in the negotiations "due to external factors."