MUSCAT // An Iranian official said there was no progress in two days of talks with US and European Union diplomats in Oman, as the deadline for a nuclear accord nears.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, said that “after hours of talks we are still not in a position to say we have made progress and we cannot say that we have regressed,” according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

United States secretary of state John Kerry, former European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrapped up the talks on Tuesday in the Omani capital of Muscat. Negotiations will resume in Vienna on November 18, less than a week before the November 24 deadline that the sides have laid down for an agreement to ease sanctions and curb Iran’s nuclear work.

US president Barack Obama told CBS News in an interview aired November 9 that “there’s still a big gap” between the two sides and cautioned that “we may not be able to get there.”

Talks between Iran and the group known as the P5+1 — Germany, Russia, China, France, the UK and the US — have been going on for almost a year since the breakthrough interim agreement they reached last November.

Under a final agreement, Iran would have to submit to restrictions on its nuclear programme, in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions that slashed the Islamic Republic’s oil output and plunged its economy into recession.

A State Department official declined to evaluate the two days of talks or say if the deadline would be met. The official described the negotiations as tough, direct and serious.

The official was one of two who briefed reporters on Mr Kerry’s plane as he flew to China today to join Mr Obama at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Beijing.

Asked why they wouldn’t give details, the second official quoted former secretary of state Madeleine Albright as saying that negotiations, like mushrooms, thrive best in the dark.

Questioned about recent comments by US officials, including Mr Obama, on “gaps” that remain in the talks, the first official said those assessments were realistic, not pessimistic.

Differences remain over the scope of Iran’s uranium enrichment programme, how and when to lift economic sanctions, and how long Iran’s nuclear programme must remain under international inspections and safeguards.

Iran says its programme is for energy and medical purposes and rejects allegations that its nuclear work is a cover to build weapons.

Israel, which says an Iranian nuclear weapon would be a threat to its existence, reiterated its opposition to a deal. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the P5+1 countries not to “rush into a deal that would let Iran rush to the bomb,” according to an e-mailed statement.

Mr Netanyahu said Israel is writing to the foreign ministers of all six countries to highlight recent comments by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling for the eradication of Israel. The Iranian chief published a post on Twitter on Monday advocating a vote among “all the original people of Palestine” for a government to succeed the “fake Zionist regime.”

Mr Kerry spoke to Netanyahu last night, the first official said, and preemptively raised Mr Khamenei’s comments, conveying the US view they were outrageous and condemning them.

Also on Tuesday, Moscow and Tehran signed a deal to build two more nuclear reactors in Iran to be possibly followed by another six.

Nuclear officials from the two countries signed a contract for building two reactors at Iran’s first Russia-built nuclear plant in Bushehr.

Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia’s Rosatom state corporation, and Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi, also signed a protocol envisaging possible construction of another six reactors: two more in Bushehr and another four in an undetermined location.

Rosatom said in a statement that the construction of the new reactors will be monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency. As in the case of Bushehr’s first reactor that became operational in 2013, Russia will supply uranium fuel for the reactors and then take it back for reprocessing.

* Bloomberg News and Associated Press