On the Vienna negotiations, a U.S. diplomatic spokesperson asserted that “modest progress is… not sufficient if we are going to be able to achieve what we sincerely and steadfastly seek to achieve, that that’s a mutual return to [JCPOA] compliance. What we hope to see in Vienna going forward is more than modest, but that is up to the Iranians”. “The runway is very, very short”, he emphasised. “We are talking about potentially weeks, not months”.