Diplomacy over the revival of the Iran nuclear deal is still being maintained, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian declared, while a holdup in the multilateral negotiations enters a third month.

In an interview with the Yemeni TV channel Al-Masirah on May 3, the Iranian top diplomat noted that Tehran and Washington are still exchanging "written messages" conveyed by a European go-between. 

Up until the first week of March, the two sides were engaged in indirect talks in Vienna, attended also by participants from the UK, France, Germany, China and Russia, all signatories to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The talks, however, appeared to have hit a deadlock due to what the Western sides blamed on Russian demands to drop sanctions linked to the Ukraine war.

Despite the weeks-long pause, the Iranian foreign minister stressed that he still sought "a robust and lasting agreement," as he reasserted his earlier request for the US administration to be "realistic." Amir-Abdollahian suggested that the Iranian agenda in the talks remains unchanged. Tehran not only wants US sanctions entirely and verifiably lifted, but it does also doggedly push for non-departure guarantees in an attempt to pre-empt a repeat of the 2018 US withdrawal from the accord by former President Donald Trump.