US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday held a "productive" meeting with counterparts from Britain, Germany and France, including a discussion of the Iran nuclear deal, a State Department spokesperson said on Saturday.
"Secretary Blinken had a productive meeting with his E3 counterparts from Germany, France, and the UK in Liverpool yesterday. They discussed the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) talks and our way forward,” the spokesperson said.
The meeting took place in the northern English city of Liverpool on the eve of a G7 foreign ministers' meeting which is expected to result in a joint call for Iran to moderate its nuclear program and grasp the opportunity of talks in Vienna.
Talks between Iran and world powers over reviving the 2015 nuclear deal resumed in Vienna on Thursday.
Under the original deal that then-US President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, Iran limited its nuclear program in return for relief from US, European Union and UN sanctions.
A year after Trump's reimposition of sanctions on Iran, Tehran began to gradually violate nuclear limits of the agreement. Iran wants all sanctions to be lifted.
A European source, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested on Friday that Iran had agreed to continue the Vienna talks from where they left off in June. Iranian officials denied this.
