President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani (2nd right) and head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi (left) visit a Nuclear Technology exhibition on the 11th anniversary of National Nuclear Technology Day in Tehran, Iran on Saturday. Meanwhile US and Iranian officials clashed over what sanctions the US should lift to resume compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal. Photo: VCG

Iran has just days left to accept a deal on its nuclear program at talks in Vienna, France warned on Wednesday, while Tehran's chief negotiator promised that an agreement was closer than ever.

"It is not a question of weeks, it is a question of days," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian told the Senate, adding that a major crisis would be unleashed if there is no agreement.

The Vienna talks, which involve Iran as well as Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia directly, and the US indirectly, resumed in late November with the aim of restoring the 2015 deal. 

That accord had offered Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, but the US unilaterally withdrew in 2018 and reimposed heavy economic sanctions, prompting Iran to begin rolling back on its commitments.

"We are closer than ever to an agreement," Iran's top negotiator Ali Bagheri wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. "Our negotiating partners need to be realistic, avoid intransigence and heed lessons of past 4yrs. Time for their serious decisions."

Earlier in the day, Tehran had called on the US Congress to say Washington would commit if an agreement is reached in Vienna.

"As a matter of principle, public opinion in Iran cannot accept as a guarantee the words of a head of state, let alone the United States, due to the withdrawal of Americans" in 2018, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told the Financial Times.

AFP