European diplomatic chief Josep Borrel said Iran's position on some issues complicates the possibility of reaching an agreement on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran's nuclear program, RIA Novosti reported. 

According to him, despite the fact that everything was going well, (the U.S.) withdrew from the agreement. Subsequently, Iran has taken a position that makes it very difficult to reach agreements of any kind. The suppression of internal movements, especially the women's movements, the use of the death penalty, the supply of weapons to Russia - although they deny that they do so, there is quite a lot of evidence of this - have created conditions in which a nuclear agreement becomes more difficult, Borrell told El Pais.

In 2015, Britain, Germany, China, Russia, the United States, France and Iran struck a nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which involved lifting sanctions in exchange for curbing Iran's nuclear program. In May 2018, the U.S. under Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA and reinstated sanctions against Tehran. In response, Iran announced a phased reduction of its commitments under the agreement, abandoning restrictions on nuclear research, centrifuges, and uranium enrichment levels.

Talks were held in Vienna on the renewal of the JCPOA and the lifting of Washington's sanctions against Tehran. In December 2021, the sides reached agreement on two drafts of the agreement, in which the European side included Iran's positions. According to Iranian envoy Bagheri Kiani, the talks were successful, but U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price described the progress in Vienna as modest, urging Tehran to take the issue seriously.