We are trying to set up wide-ranging ties with Iran and make attempts to preserve JCPOA

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, who was in Tehran on a political trip, said top European officials' visits to Iran indicate their changing approach toward Iran and the benefits promised to it under the unraveling 2015 nuclear deal.

"We are trying to set up wide-ranging ties with Iran and make attempts to preserve JCPOA," he said, using the abbreviation of the nuclear deal's formal name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

He made the remarks in a meeting with Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani in Tehran on Sunday, ICANA reported. 

Iran has been deprived of JCPOA’s benefits since the United States pulled out of the deal and reimposed sweeping sanctions on the Iranian economy.

European parties pledged to protect those interests, but have so far failed to keep Iran's international trade afloat.

When Iran gradually scaled back its JCPOA commitments to balance the deal, they urged it to return to compliance and eventually triggered the dispute resolution mechanism, opening the door to the restoration of global sanctions on Tehran.

The European Union, however, later extended the mechanism's timeline to prevent the case from reaching the United Nations Security Council.

European officials, including the EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell, have been visiting Tehran for discussions to reach an agreement.

Larijani censured Europe's lip service, saying they have been only speaking over the past year while Iran's economic interests under the deal have not been guaranteed.

He also said the European financial mechanism known as INSTEX (Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges) has been useless.