Iran urges U.S. to make «political decision» to break stalemate in nuclear talks

Washington needs a political decision to prepare the ground for an agreement and to help break the stalemate over the nuclear issue, Zarif told reporters in Vienna on Tuesday following three rounds of negotiations with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Zarif said he held "good" discussions with Kerry and it is now for political experts to hold talks over serious topics, adding that the main goal of negotiating parties is to make efforts to end the existing "illogical" deadlock, Xinhua informs.

For his part, John Kerry told reporters in Vienna on Tuesday that all talking parties will continue work to bridge the remaining "real gaps" on some key issues in Iranian nuclear talks as the July 20 deadline approaches, while tangible progress has been made on other key issues.

"There has been tangible progress on key issues...however, there are also very real gaps on other key issues," Kerry said after the meetings with his Iranian counterpart.

The United States and five other world major countries, namely France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China, have been seeking a deal to settle the decade-old disputes over Iran's nuclear program.

A six-month interim deal, which took effect on Jan. 20 and would expire five days later, was designed to buy time for negotiations for a final agreement. Under the interim deal, Iran agreed to suspend some sensitive nuclear activities in exchange of limited sanction relief.