Photo taken on June 20, 2021 shows a meeting of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Joint Commission in Vienna, Austria. (EU Delegation Vienna/Handout via Xinhua)

All participants will travel back to their capitals for consultations. Enrique Mora, deputy secretary-general and political director of the European External Action Service, said he hopes that in the next round, delegations will come back "with clearer instructions, clearer ideas on how to finally close the deal."

VIENNA, June 20  -- Talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), are "closer to a deal," said a European Union (EU) official on Sunday after the latest meeting that wrapped up the previous six rounds of negotiations.

"We are closer to a deal, but we are not still there," Enrique Mora, deputy secretary-general and political director of the European External Action Service, told reporters following a meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission, attended by representatives from China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain and Iran.

"We have made progress on a number of technical issues. We have now more clarity on technical documents, all of them quite complex. And that clarity allows us to have also a clear idea of what the political problems are," Mora said, adding that they are "closer (to a deal) than one week ago."

Meanwhile, all participants will travel back to their capitals for consultations. Mora said that he hopes that in the next round, delegations will come back "with clearer instructions, clearer ideas on how to finally close the deal."