“But we made clear to the Iranians that time is not on their side, and it is better to go back to the negotiation table (in Vienna) quickly.”

The EU acts as coordinator in negotiations aimed at reviving the nuclear deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The European Union will not hold talks with Iran in Brussels this week over restarting negitations to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said.

“I heard that someone was convinced that next Thursday was going to be a meeting — no,” he said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

“”Everybody’s determined to get back on track,” said Borrell. ”We are working hard to go back to Vienna, but we also made clear to the Iranians that time is not on their side and it is better to go back to the negotiation table quickly,” he added.

Borrell’s remarks came as a clarification after an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said Iran’s nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri, would go to Brussels for discussions Thursday.

The 2015 agreement  with world powers limited Iran’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief, but the U.S. under former president Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018.

The EU acts as coordinator in negotiations aimed at reviving the deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Negotiations got under way in Vienna in April after U.S. President Joe Biden  showed a willingness to come back to the deal and lift sanctions imposed by his predecessor Donald Trump.

But the talks have been suspended since June, when a radical president Ebrahim Raisi was elected in Iran.

The US has participated only indirectly in the Vienna talks, and Washington insists Iran must return to its nuclear commitments that it has been rolling back.

A senior EU official acknowledged last week that Iran isn’t ready to return to talks in Vienna.

During a meeting last week in Washington with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said his team will examine “other options if Iran doesn’t change course.”

“We believe that diplomacy is the best way to do that,” added Blinken.

Lapid said “other options are going to be on the table if diplomacy fails. By saying other options, I think everyone understands, here, in Israel, in the Emirates and in Tehran, what it is that we mean. … There are moments when nations must use force to protect the world from evil.”

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told U.S. President Joe Biden whom he met in August in Washington that the costs of returning to the 2015 Iran deal far outweight the benefits because Iran is now much closer to reaching the sufficient quantity of enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb than it was in 2015 and that lifting the sanctions would only fund Tehran’s malign activities in the Middle East.