TEHRAN – A senior Russian diplomat leading his country’s delegation in the Iran nuclear deal talks in Vienna has said negotiations will resume next week as top diplomats are poised to return to the Austrian capital for the seventh round of talks.

"My instinct tells me that the Vienna Talks on restoration of JCPOA will resume next week, i.e. no later than July 4 or - most probably - earlier. This is not for sure but highly likely. Let’s see,” Mikhail Ulyanov said on Twitter.

The Russian diplomat was responding to a Twitter user on when the Vienna talks will resume.

Nuclear negotiators from Iran and the remaining parties to the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), have returned to their capitals after concluding the sixth round of talks last week. Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi, who leads the Iranian negotiating team in Vienna, said the negotiators made progress during the sixth round particularly in terms of preparing the draft of the agreement. He said the remaining important issues required serious decisions in the capitals, especially in the negotiating countries.

While stating that sides are closer to an agreement than ever before, the deputy foreign minister expressed hope that an agreement could be reached in the next round of talks, although it could not be guaranteed.