While Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged Iran to stay in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers, the Chief of Staff of the Islamic Republic President Hassan Rouhani says the deadline set for withdrawing from the agreement is non-negotiable.

Mahmoud Vaezi, who is considered as the strongman of President Rouhani's administration, insisted on Wednesday, May 15, that Tehran will move towards dropping JCPOA step by step, if European countries fail to deliver what Iran wants within the sixty-day deadline set for them.

On May 8, a year after the US President Donald Trump dropped JCPOA, Hassan Rouhani announced that Iran partially suspends the implementation of JCPOA and demanded that European signatories of the JCPOA, France, Germany and the U.K. to show good faith in allowing trade within sixty days.

Echoing Rouhani's remarks, Vaezi told reporters on Wednesday, May 15, that Iran will never backtrack from its deadline until Tehran's demands are met.

“During these two months, we would take two fundamental measures and if we achieve our desired result, we will return to the (conditions of the) day before our deadline announcement, but if we do not gain the result, we will implement the second phase,” he said, without providing further detail.