BRUSSELS (AFP) - European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday he was less confident about the swift conclusion of negotiations to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal he is coordinating.

He added during a press conference in Brussels, "I regret to say that my confidence has declined from 28 hours ago regarding the convergence of views ... and the possibility of concluding the agreement now," without clarifying what specific event he was referring to.

On August 31, Josep Borrell expressed hope that an agreement would be reached "in the coming days".

Negotiations on the Iranian nuclear file, which began 16 months ago but were suspended and then resumed in early August, aim to relaunch this agreement concluded in 2015 with Tehran by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (the United States, France, the United Kingdom and China). and Russia) in addition to Germany.

The European Union, the coordinator of the talks, presented what it called a "final text" on August 8 to revive the agreement that former US President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018.

"The initial requests that I received were accepted by both sides and were taken into account without making a radical change in the text," Borrell said, describing his proposal as "very balanced." However, "opinions do not converge, but rather diverge," and "attitudes do not converge...on the contrary."

"It is very worrying if there is no rapprochement during (the negotiations), the whole process is in danger," he said.

"I must say that the last answer I got is that if the goal is to close the deal quickly, it won't help," he added, without going into detail. He added that he "will continue consultations with all participants in the (nuclear deal), especially the United States."

Last week, the US State Department considered Tehran's response "unconstructive," adding that it would respond to Iran through the European Union. Iran said on Monday it had not yet received an official response from the United States to its proposal.

Tehran recently called for the closure of an International Atomic Energy Agency investigation into traces of enriched uranium found at three undeclared sites, which was rejected by the head of the agency, Rafael Grossi.