TEHRAN – The secretary of the Expediency Council says Iran and the 5+1 group of world powers have succeeded to come to an agreement on the terms of a long-awaited deal over Tehran’s nuclear program, but the United States is hindering the talks bear fruit.

Talking to reporters after a meeting of the Expediency Council on Saturday, Mohsen Rezaee said the U.S. seeks to gain more concessions in the course of nuclear talks through making excessive demands.

He added that Washington has no other option but to negotiate with Tehran, saying the U.S. policy of imposing sanctions on Iran has hit a deadlock and “[U.S. President Barack] Obama has also explicitly stated that we cannot attack Iran and that intensification of sanctions is futile.”

“Therefore,” he said, “negotiation is the only way for America.

Attempts by the United States to undermine negotiations have also “dismayed Europeans, who are the allies of America, although they do not display their dismay publicly,” he explained.

“However, they [the Europeans] believe that considering the Ukrainian issue, these excessive demands would be detrimental and would cause them face trouble in the Middle East as well,” the former commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps added.

He also reiterated that all world powers favor a nuclear deal with Iran and China and Russia are particularly opposed to the excessive demands by the United States.

“Our negotiations with the 5+1 have borne results but the Americans do not let the work become done and they are seeking further concessions and are not content with the concessions the Islamic republic [of Iran] has [so far] given them,” he concluded.

------Fresh round of talks -------

Diplomats from the United States, Europe and Iran held a fresh round of meetings Saturday in what could prove to be a decisive weekend in the effort to strike a final deal, the Washington Post reported.

Secretary of State John Kerry spent the entire morning in back-to-back sessions with his counterparts from Germany, France, Iran and the European Union. In the early afternoon, after a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Kerry tweeted that they “still have difficult issues to resolve.”

The diplomats on Friday decided to extend an interim agreement through Monday, in effect pushing back the deadline for the third time in two solid weeks of daily negotiations.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who left the talks on Friday, returned to Vienna on Saturday morning to rejoin the United States and Germany in the negotiations. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who also departed Friday, is expected to return Saturday afternoon. The foreign ministers of Russia and China have said they will come back if their presence is needed.

The diplomats were not saying much to reporters, communicating instead through Twitter.

Federica Mogherini, the foreign policy chief for the European Union, thanked the Austrian government and people for their “prolonged hospitality,” adding the negotiators were “still working day and night on #IranTalks.”

Mogherini canceled an appearance at an event commemorating the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica to remain at the Iran talks.

On Friday, Zarif accused the United States and the Europeans of backtracking.

“Unfortunately, we have seen changes in the position and excessive demands... by several countries,” he said.

MD/PA