The European Union is making a last-ditch attempt to save the Iran nuclear deal and break a deadlock, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told the Financial Times that he was seeking a “middle way” to end the impasse, which threatens to scupper more than a year of European diplomatic efforts. Talks have been on hold since March, chiefly over Iran's insistence that Washington remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Tehran's elite security force, from the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.

Borrell is considering a scenario whereby the designation on the IRGC is lifted, but kept in place on other parts of the organisation, which has several arms and a sprawling business empire, the FT reported.