A senior U.S. diplomat described Iranian proposals at the seventh round of Vienna talks to be a retreat from “any of the compromises that Iran had floated during the sixth round of talks, pocket all of the compromises that others and the U.S. in particular had made, and then ask for more; in other words, [Iran did] not come back with a serious proposal”. “The world is prepared even to engage economically with Iran and diplomatically with Iran. But for that, Iran has to show seriousness at the table and be prepared to come back in short order in compliance with the deal”, the diplomat added. The official further emphasised that “the time that the JCPOA has for still remaining a viable deal is inversely proportional to the speed with which Iran advances its nuclear program”, warning: “the fact that they are… continuing to accelerate their program could only lead to the conclusion that they’re trying to build a nuclear program for tactical reasons or for more nefarious purposes. But both of those are things that we can’t allow”.