In an interview with the Financial Times published Thursday, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stated that both the U.S. and Iran are demonstrating flexibility on a nuclear deal, with Washington seeming "willing" to accept some level of nuclear enrichment.

"It is positive that the Americans appear willing to tolerate Iranian ​enrichment within clearly set boundaries," Fidan, ​who has ⁠been involved in talks with both Washington and Tehran, told the FT.

"The Iranians now recognize that they need to reach a deal with the Americans, and the Americans understand that the Iranians have certain limits. It’s pointless to try to force them.”

Washington has until now demanded Iran relinquish its stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity, a small step away from ⁠the ⁠90% that is considered weapons grade.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Iran would continue to demand the lifting of financial sanctions and insist on its nuclear rights, including enrichment.

Fidan told the FT he believed Tehran "genuinely wants to reach a real agreement” and would accept restrictions on enrichment levels and a strict inspection regime, as ⁠it did in the 2015 agreement with the U.S. and others. U.S. and Iranian diplomats held talks through Omani mediators in Oman last ​week in an effort to revive diplomacy, after President Donald Trump ​positioned a naval flotilla in the region, raising fears of new military action. Trump on Tuesday said ⁠he ‌was ‌considering sending a second aircraft carrier to ⁠the Middle East, even as ‌Washington and Tehran prepared to resume negotiations.

The Turkish foreign minister, however, cautioned ​that broadening the Iran-U.S. talks ⁠to ballistic missiles would bring "nothing but ⁠another war."