Iranian and US officials have confirmed that Washington delivered its response to Tehran on a EU-drafted proposal to revive the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal.

“As you know, we received Iran’s comments on the EU’s proposed final text through the EU,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on 24 August.

“Our review of those comments has now concluded. We have responded to the EU today,” he added.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kanaani confirmed the arrival of the US response, saying: “This evening Iran received the US response through the EU. The careful review of the response has started in Tehran.”

“Iran will share its view with the EU, as the coordinator of the nuclear talks, upon completion of Tehran’s review,” Kanaani added.

The announcement set off alarms in Tel Aviv, where Israeli interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid urged western powers to say “enough” and stop negotiations to give Iran sanctions relief.

“I told them these negotiations have reached the point where they must stop and say ‘enough,’” he told reporters on Wednesday, before claiming that reviving the JCPOA would “give Iran $100 billion a year … to undermine stability in [West Asia] and spread terror around the globe.”

The US response to Tehran comes just one day before Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz is set to travel to Florida, where he said he “will do everything we can to influence the agreement.”

He is also set to meet with US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Michael Erik Kurilla, who will brief Gantz on “the operative aspects of collaborations” between Tel Aviv and CENTCOM.

Israel’s National Security Advisor, Eyal Hulata, was also deployed to the US this week, as Tel Aviv scrambles to scuttle the deal.

According to details leaked last week about Iran’s finalized terms, Tehran left the door open for future negotiations to lift sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), but has dropped their removal from a terror blacklist as an immediate demand.

Sanctions against the IRGC will allegedly remain in place, however, they will no longer extend to “partner companies” that engage in transactions with the corps or western companies, a senior US official told media, suggesting a softening of the White House’s stance on the matter.

Despite Israel’s flare-up, Washington and Brussels have been trying to find a way to ease a global energy crisis exacerbated by western sanctions on Russia’s energy sector.

After the west’s historic allies in the Gulf refused to increase oil production – and other oil giants like Venezuela started demanding better deals for their crude – western powers appear to be expediting a return to the Obama-era JCPOA, which imposed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear energy program in exchange for comprehensive sanctions relief.