Tehran, May 8 (IANS): The US and all parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) are serious in efforts to rescue the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, a senior official said here.

After Friday's meeting of the Iran nuclear deal in the Austrian capital of Vienna, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who heads Iran's delegation to the negotiations, was quoted as saying by official media that all parties are serious in reaching a solution despite numerous challenges, Xinhua news agency reported.

Besides, "the news coming to us from the Americans is that they are both serious about returning to the JCPOA and are ready to lift a large part of (anti-Iran) sanctions", he added.

"However, in our opinion, it (the sanctions announced for removal) is not complete yet. For that reason, the negotiations will continue until we reach all our demands," Araqchi added.

Iran is serious in re-embracing its JCPOA obligations if its demands are met, he said, adding that "this has nothing to do with other issues in Tehran, including the upcoming presidential elections".

The JCPOA was reached in 2015 between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the US, the UK, Russia, France, China, plus Germany) together with the European Union.

Tehran agreed to roll back parts of its nuclear weapons program in exchange for decreased economic sanctions.

Iran gradually stopped implementing parts of its commitments in May 2019, one year after the administration of former US President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned the agreement and re-imposed sanctions on Tehran.

The JCPOA Joint Commission began to meet in offline format on April 6 in Vienna, aiming at getting the US and Iran to resume compliance with the nuclear agreement.