Iran's Rouhani says US will lift sanctions

Iran's president said on Thursday that the United States was ready to lift sanctions on his country's oil, banking and shipping sectors that were reimposed after the Trump administration withdrew from the nuclear deal signed in 2015.

Iran has steadily overstepped the accord’s limits on uranium enrichment since Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.

Iran and world powers that have been trying to revive the deal since April are currently in talks to reach a new agreement. The EU official leading the discussions told Reuters on Wednesday that he was confident a positive outcome could be reached.

"The talks in Vienna are about minor issues. They have accepted to lift sanctions on Iran's oil and shipping sectors as well as sanctions on the Central Bank and others," President Hassan Rouhani said during a televised cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Rouhani was speaking a few weeks ahead of Iran's presidential election, in which the revival of the nuclear accord could boost moderate candidates close to him.

Nevertheless, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, said on Wednesday that some "key issues" were still unclear

And a senior Iranian official told the country's Press TV that Washington had no intention to "completely lift any sanctions on the oil, banking, finance and energy sectors".

"Washington intends to temporarily suspend some of the sanctions over a long period of time and in various steps," said the official.