Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) entered yesterday an intensive care unit amid talks in Vienna and Berlin, a planned EU move, and expected high-level consultations in the upcoming two months, before US President Donald Trump announces his final decision on the nuclear deal. Tehrans files took an upward turn when officials from the international group "5 + 1" and Iran met for the eighth time to assess the course of the nuclear deal, amid mounting questions about the future of the deal after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired. Britain, France and Germany have proposed fresh EU sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missiles and its role in Syria’s war, according to a confidential document seen by Reuters. The new sanctions are a bid to persuade Washington to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. German media outlets reported a visit of Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron to the US next month to try and convince Trump of maintaining the nuclear deal. Iran’s deputy foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi held negotiations on the eve of the committees meeting with the European Union, Germany, France and Russia before all sides sat at the negotiating table at the Palais Coburg Hotel in central Vienna. The joint commission was chaired by EEAS Secretary General Helga Schmid and US senior State Department official Brian Hook. Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron are scheduled to make a joint visit in April to Washington, although the newspaper stressed that Iran will not be the focus of negotiations with Trump, it pointed out that the visit aims to prevent a real unwanted war with Iran. The joint paper was sent to European Union capitals on Friday, said two people familiar with the matter, to sound out support for such sanctions as they would need the support of all 28 EU member governments. For its part, Associated Press reported that EU foreign ministers, who will discuss the issue Monday in Brussels, are expected to affirm that they believe the deal with Iran is good, and work to discourage Trump from pulling out of the deal. At the same time, theyre expected to start putting greater stress on Irans missile development and its destabilizing role in the region. Senior State Department official Brian Hook said on Friday after talks in Berlin and Vienna that Trump wants to reach a “supplemental” deal with the European signatories to the agreement by then, according to Agence French Press (AFP). Hook indicated that it would cover Iran’s ballistic missile programme, its regional activities, the expiration of parts of the nuclear deal in the mid-2020s and tighter UN inspections. “We are taking things one week at a time, we are having very good discussions in London, Paris and Berlin,” indicated Hook who visited Berlin on Thursday to meet with his British, French and German counterparts "There is a lot we agree on and where we disagree we are working to bridge our differences," Hook said. However, he declined to indicate what would happen if and when such an agreement is reached, saying: "We are not under instructions from the president to go beyond seeking an agreement with our European allies." "We all have concerns about missiles, regional instability, support for terrorism, and the malicious activities of Iran," a European diplomat said, adding: "We are ready to take steps to address to those concerns," he said. Since the nuclear deal entered into force, the committee holds a meeting every three months to discuss the course of implementation, and this was the last meeting before May 12, when US President will announce whether he would ratify the agreement. In January, Trump granted European countries a final deadline of 4 months to bridge the gaps in the nuclear agreement and renegotiate, especially on the inspection of military sites and the ballistic missile program, as well as Irans destabilizing regional role and support of armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere. The importance of the meeting grew especially after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was sacked for several reasons, including his position on Iran and JCPOA. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif told reporters that considering what has been envisaged in the JCPOA in the field of research and development and the Islamic Republic of Irans continued measures to develop its peaceful nuclear capability, "if the US makes the mistake of exiting the JCPOA, it will definitely be a painful mistake for the Americans." On Friday, chief nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi refused to make statements to the media after the meeting ended, but the official IRNA news agency quoted a source accompanying Araqchi as saying that he would "return to Palais Coburg Hotel for further consultations, including a possible meeting with the US delegation." Irans ambassador to UK and member of the Iranian negotiating team, Hamid Baeidinejad, wrote on his Twitter account: "At the meeting of the Joint Commission for the Nuclear Agreement, the United States in exchange other countries cooperation, was under pressure and isolation more than ever." Araqchi said he discussed the "violations" of the nuclear deal with EU, Russia, Germany and France on the eve of the joint committee meeting, adding that he would hold bilateral negotiations with other delegations, without specifying if he had the intentions to meet the US delegation on the sidelines of the negotiations. Speaking to IRNA, Araqchi acknowledged that the developments of the nuclear file in the next phase "will not be easy," hoping that the meeting of the joint committee will lead to a common understanding "under the current circumstances." He also ruled out any possibility of resuming negotiations on Irans nuclear program, indicating: "From our point of view, there is no possibility of a supplementary or additional agreement or terms that are being used today," he said, adding that talk of renegotiation is "against the nuclear agreement."