In a statement on Saturday, Steinmeier said all sides had "very serious negotiations” in recent months over Iran’s nuclear energy program and were able to achieve “significant progress".
He said the two sides have the impression that "the differences can still be overcome in the time remaining” so that a final deal would be reached.
Steinmeier was quoted by Press TV as saying that differences still remain between the two sides but Germany has agreed with other countries from the group of six world powers that it would be wrong to stop the talks.
After nearly three weeks of intensive diplomatic negotiations in the Austrian capital of Vienna that began on July 2, Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) agreed to continue talks on Tehran’s nuclear program for another four months.
The parties decided to extend the nuclear talks until November 24 in the hope of clinching a final deal to resolve the decade-long standoff on Iran’s nuclear energy program. The four-month extension of the talks will begin on July 21.
Iran and the sextet on November 24, 2013, signed an interim nuclear deal in the Swiss city of Geneva. The breakthrough agreement (the Joint Plan of Action), which came into effect on January 20, had given the parties extendable six months to draw up a comprehensive nuclear deal.