ST PETERSBURG ,May 25, 2018 (News Wires) - President Vladimir Putin, commenting on Washington's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, said Friday that unilateral steps taken by countries like the United States led to a dead-end and were always counter-productive. Speaking in St Petersburg at an economic forum, Putin said Washington's flip-flopping on international agreements after the election of new US presidents generated mistrust. In a related development, talks with European powers on an economic package aimed at salvaging the Iran nuclear deal continued in Vienna on Friday, Iran's deputy foreign minister said. "For the time being we are negotiating... to see if they can provide us with a package which can actually give Iran the benefits of sanctions-lifting and then the next step is to find guarantees for that package and we need both legal and political commitments by the remaining participants in the JCPOA [deal]," Abbas Araqchi told reporters. He was speaking after the meeting with counterparts from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.