TEHRAN - Negotiations to bring Iran and the U.S. back into the 2015 nuclear deal limiting Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions are in A "stalemate", EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Wednesday.

"I am afraid that with the political situation in the U.S., and so many directions without being conclusive, now we are going to stay in a kind of stalemate," Borrell told AFP.

The EU’s chief diplomat has coordinated efforts over the past year and a half to try to revive the nuclear deal, which was badly damaged after former president Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from it in May 2018 and returned sanctions in line with his “maximum pressure” policy against Iran.

On year after Trump quit the agreement, officially known as the JCPOA, Iran gradually started lifting restrictions on its nuclear program, increasing its stock of enriched uranium and turning off monitoring cameras operated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Last month, Borrell put a text in front of all parties that he described at the time as "final" and which he told AFP on Wednesday was "the best equilibrium point between the positions of everybody".

But Iran is sticking to a demand that the IAEA draw a line under a probe launched when the Agency found traces of nuclear material at three undeclared sites.

And the U.S. political situation has changed as President Joe Biden faces midterm Congressional elections in November that make deals with Iran harder to reach.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesperson for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), on Tuesday said “Iran has sent data and answers to the Agency's queries and has also held dialogue sessions to clear up the ambiguities” regarding traces of nuclear material.