Following the sixth round of nuclear talks in Vienna, a senior U.S. diplomat indicated that “we still have serious differences that have not been bridged”, noting too that “we wouldn’t be going back for a seventh round if we didn’t think that a deal was possible”. The official further said that the election of Ebrahim Raisi as Iran’s president “does not affect our determination to try to reach a deal or the pace at which we will go about pursuing it”, and revealed that “we’ve made progress” on the issue of U.S. detainees. “We see the return to the JCPOA as a beginning of a diplomatic process, not as the end”, the diplomat asserted, adding with respect to follow-on negotiations: “We know what Iran’s position is, but that’s… one of many reasons that we are still engaged in the talks and why we haven’t concluded them yet”.