VIENNA, May 1. /TASS/. The delegations of the joint commission on Iran’s nuclear program summed up the interim results of the next round of consultations in Vienna, noting the steady progress, the next meeting will be held on May 7, Russia’s Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said.

"The JCPOA participants noted today the indisputable progress made at the Vienna talks on restoration of the nuclear deal. The Joint Commission will reconvene at the end of the next week. In the meantime experts will continue to draft elements of future agreement," Ulyanov, who heads the Russian delegation at the consultations wrote on Twitter.

"At which stage the Vienna talks on JCPOA restoration are? It’s too early to be excited, but we have reasons for cautious and growing optimism. There is no deadline, but participants aim at successful completion of the talks in approximately 3 weeks. Is it realistic? We will see," he noted.

Ulyanov said earlier 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. "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. According to Ulyanov, there is a general intention to successfully complete the talks, and Washington confirmed this stance.

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 on 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 for lifting the sanctions imposed previously by the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, and the United States over its nuclear program.