Progress in Iran talks but hard issues remain -Kerry

Blocking a deal would require a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress, because Obama would be expected to veto any attempt to stop a deal his administration believes will cut off Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon.

“I would just hope again that they would take their time and finish this in the best way that they can, even though we have already gone down a bad track”, he continued. “It’s very important”.

“At the end of the day, a nuclear deal with Iran has to be airtight because they lie and cheat”, he said, according to an account in The Hill.

On This Week, Cotton also responded to a video from Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif posted Friday that expressed optimism about the state of negotiations.

Corker said he had spoken to Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday to urge patience.

The major powers suspect Iran of trying to develop a nuclear weapons capability.

Amano’s deputies were due to fly to Tehran on Sunday to discuss ways of resolving lingering questions, Iranian sources told Agence France-Presse, although the IAEA declined to comment on the reported visit. After that, the review would last 60 days, with growing risks a deal could unravel.

“So our teams remain very hard at work in the coming hours and days, we’re going to go as hard as we can”, Kerry said. “I did talk to Secretary Kerry yesterday”. Among other things, he prohibited opening up Iran’s military sites for inspections, rejected long-term constraints on centrifuge research and development, and insisted on immediate sanctions relief.

Meanwhile, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also said on Thursday: “We’re moving forward, but we’re not there yet”.

The extension was announced in the wake of Zarif flying back and forth between Vienna and Tehran to consult with Iranian leaders over the terms of the agreement.

Regarding the PMD issue, Western diplomats said they were not demanding a public confession that Iran had conducted research into building a nuclear warhead, but that the IAEA had to be satisfied it knew the full scope of past Iranian activity to establish a credible basis for future monitoring.

“There’s a lot of speculation”. The group of foreign ministers would still have to define the exact sequence of which steps Iran will have to undertake and a plan on how economic sanctions would be lifted, Aragchi said.

“Everyone in Iran – including myself, the government, the Majlis [parliament], the judiciary, the security apparatuses, and the military, and all institutions – want a good nuclear agreement … that is in accordance with Iran’s interests. And no one wants to rush to judgment”.

Public silence by US officials in Vienna has contrasted with a near-constant barrage of criticism at home, particularly from the wide field of Republican presidential candidates. Rick Santorum, in a separate interview on “Face the Nation”, called the deal “folly from its foundation”.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards, who fund military operations in part through financial enterprises they control, “will benefit from sanctions if there’s a nuclear deal”, Nader said.