TEHRAN – The foreign ministers of Iran and five world powers still partyto the 2015 nuclear deal will meet in Vienna on Friday for talks on thetroubled accord, state media in Tehran said.

The top diplomats of Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia will joinIranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in the Austrian capital,Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported, for their first talks togetheron the deal since Washington pulled out earlier this year.

During the meeting the ministers will discuss an “incentive package” theEuropean Union is offering to try to persuade Iran to stay in theagreement, IRNA reported.

The meeting will seek “solutions to preserve the Iran nuclear deal afterthe illegal US action to withdraw,” it said.

The announcement came with President Hassan Rouhani in Europe to rallysupport for the deal.

Rouhani, accompanied by Zarif, was in Switzerland on Tuesday and due tohead on Wednesday to Vienna, where the accord was signed in 2015.

US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the agreement twomonths ago, to the ire of the other signatories which along with theEuropean Union have continued to back the accord.

Iran has warned it is ready to resume uranium enrichment to 20 percent –above the level permitted in the deal — “within days” if the agreementfalls apart. APP/AFP