The US-Iran deal aimed at resurrecting Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers lays out milestones of reciprocal steps to bring both sides back to commitments, but does not include lifting oil sanctions. It is reported by Reuters with reference to diplomats.

Envoys from Iran, Russia, China, Britain, France, Germany, the European Union and the United States are still debating the details of a draft agreement amid warnings from the West that time is running out. Delegates say that most of the text is agreed, but some thorny questions remain.

The overall goal is to return to the original deal to lift sanctions against Iran, including those that have reduced its oil sales, in exchange for curbs on its nuclear activities.

Iran insists that its goals are exclusively peaceful and it wants to develop nuclear technology for civilian use. But Western powers believe that no state has enriched uranium to such a high level without developing nuclear weapons, and Iran's successes since the US pulled out of the deal mean the 2015 agreement will soon be completely thwarted.

The draft text of the agreement, which is more than 20 pages long, provides for a sequence of steps to be implemented after it is approved by the other parties to the deal, starting with a phase that includes the suspension of Iran's enrichment of uranium with a purity above 5%, diplomats familiar with the negotiations said.

The text also mentions other measures, which diplomats say include unfreezing about $7 billion worth of Iranian funds stuck in South Korean banks due to US sanctions, as well as freeing Western prisoners held in Iran.

Only after this initial wave of measures is passed and confirmed will the main phase of sanctions lifting begin, culminating in what many diplomats refer to as Re-Execution Day — a nod to the Original Deal's Implementation Day.

The duration of these milestones has yet to be agreed upon, and the text specifies X number of days between important days such as Reintroduction Day, diplomats say. Various officials estimate the time from agreement to Reimplementation Day at one to three months.

Iran will return to major nuclear limits, such as a 3.67% uranium enrichment purity limit, diplomats said.

Like the original agreement, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the new agreement calls for the United States to lift sanctions on Iran's vital oil sector, rather than lift them entirely. This will require bounces every few months.