VIENNA, May 1. /TASS/. Delegates of five world powers (Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, China and France) at an unofficial meeting with the US delegation in Vienna confirmed absolute intention to restore the nuclear deal, Russia’s Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said.

"The parties to the meeting confirmed their unconditional intention towards restoring the nuclear deal," Ulyanov, who heads the Russian delegation at the consultations in the Austrian capital, said commenting on the outcome of the meeting with the US side, which was not attended by Iran.

Russia’s delegation held a meeting in Vienna with Iran’s representatives on Saturday, who confirmed business-like intention to achieve full restoration of the nuclear deal, Ulyanov told.

"Today there was a bilateral meeting between the Russian and Iranian delegations. It confirmed that the Iranian side has a very business-like intention to achieve a good result in fully restoring the nuclear deal as soon as possible," said Ulyanov, who heads the Russian delegation at the consultations in the Austrian capital.

According to Ulyanov, there is a general intention to successfully complete the talks, and Washington confirmed this stance. "Everyone is aware that many issues need to be solved. But everyone expects that all efforts should be made to complete talks this month as soon as possible," he stressed.

Earlier, Ulyanov wrote on his Twitter account that delegations of Russia, the UK, Germany, China and France held an unofficial meeting with the US delegation without Iran, whose representatives were not ready for direct contact with the US side. According to him, a useful exchange of views was held.

Since April 2021, Vienna has hosted several in-person meetings of the Joint Commission discussing the United States’ potential return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, known as the Iran nuclear deal, which Washington abandoned in 2018) as well as the ways ensuring full, effective implementation of the deal by all the parties. Informal consultations are held in various formats, including at the expert level. The Joint Commission has set up three working groups so far, namely on lifting US sanctions on Iran, on implementing Tehran’s nuclear commitments and on agreeing a sequence of steps to restore the deal implementation.

The JCPOA, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, was signed between Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (Russia, the United Kingdom, China, the United States and France) and Germany in 2015. Under the deal, Iran undertook to curb its nuclear activities and place them under total control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in exchange of abandonment of the sanctions imposed previously by the United Nations Security Council, the European Union and the United States over its nuclear program.