>> as james bays spaicted in his report the foreign minister mr. zarif, earlier he had a one on one with fredericka margarini, she was aware there were still gaps between the two sides, but she was hoping the eu could help close the gaps. that bilateral meeting has now been expanded to include the foreign secretaries of britain france and germany who of course crucially are also part of this p-5 plus one organization which is driving the talks forward. and that is what we understand is happening right now it's hinted that those talks should be wrapping up within about 45 minutes. >> and you mentioned the gaps. do we have any idea what they are? >> well, there's been very little on the specifics of what these gaps are. but it is well-known that the key issues separating the sides in the months up into this last crucial two weeks don't forget they want to get this deal signed by the end of march are concerned basically how much of iran's nuclear program will be allowed to be active. how much of the centrifuges that iran has currently will be able to remain

he left mr zarif made upbeat comments. cameras had been kept a long way away. we could make out his words. finally we are getting something. mr zarif was whisked by motorcades by a plane to brussels, the diplomacy is under way at a hectic pace. >> i'm happy, my hard work is paying off. putting the u.s. center on bilateral relationship and more generally in an unprecedented face. now he's in the home stretch, we are in the 11th hour and he more than anyone with the exception of president obama wants to seal the deal. >> the foreign minister returns for talks in the coming days. but the iranian delegation is due to meet at the end of the week. it's a deadline at the end of this month, time to get a deal is tight >>> the u.s. government has uncovered dozens of priceless artefacts sold illegally in the united states. they have been handed over to iraqi officials in washington. kimberley halkett reports. >> reporter: more than 60 ancient artefacts thought lost forever are set to return to their origins. a limestone head of the king dating back to 713 b.c. worth mill

mr. zarif made his most upbeat comments to date. cameras have been kept a long way away. we can clearly make out his words. finally, we are getting something. mr. zarif was whisked by motor kade to meetings with european diplomacy is now underway at a hectic pace. >> i found john kerry feeling like hard work is paying off. the nuclear negotiations more generally in unprecedented phase. so now he is in the home stretch. we are in the 11th hour. he probably more than anyone else with the possible exception of president obama wants to seal the deal. >> secretary kerry is expected to stay in lusanne all week. foreign minister zarif will return here for further talks in the coming days. the iranian delegation is leavedue to leave at the ends of the way. it's iranian new year. with a deadline for a framework agreement set at the end of this month, time to get a deal is tight. james bays al jazeera, lusanne. >>> in isusinusis's election, they have made their final appeal. prime minister benen min neta

i think it's clear that they will want a briefing from mr. zarif on what has been described as a meeting in lausanne today after this evening session mr. zarif returns to lausanne to continue the talks with the americans tomorrow tuesday. as this week progresses all the while the deadline for this framework deal being the end of march we will see a greater involvement from the french the british and the germans and the fortunate ministers will probably arrive in lausanne towards the end of the week as momentum builds towards trying to get this deal done. >> simon mcgregor wood with the latest from brussels, simon thank you. >>> during this round of talks both sides hope to narrow the gaps before a march 31st deadline for a political agreement. and then a final deal must be reached bring the end of june. there has been significant progress. iran has agreed to curb sensitive nuclear activities by only enriching the uranium to the levels needed for nuclear power. there is of course disagreement over how big iran's nuclear program will ultimately be. b

mr. zarif made upbeat comments today. cameras were far away, but we could clearly make out his words, and finally we're getting something. mr. zarif was whisked away by motorcade to fly into brussels to meet with foreign minute stress. >> if i'm john kerry i ahappy. i'm happy. we're in the 11th hour he more than anybody. >> with a deadline for framework agreements set at the end of this month time to get a deal is tight. james bays, al jazeera, lausanne. >> during this round of talks, there are gaps between the agreement. then the final deal must be reached by the end of june. in return, international sanctions against tehran worth about $7 billion were temporarily relaxed. but there is still disagreement over how big iran's nuclear program will be. they oppose any deal with iran, and they could block pro protests against iran. simon mcgregor wood has more from brussels. >> they arrived in brussels earlier monday evening. he had a bilateral meeting that's now being expanded to include the forei

now you have the iranians saying that they are making progress, they are moving forward mr. zarifkerry said tough negotiations but we're making progress. so if you look at the two key main players in this they still say they are moving forward. some of the more negative comments are coming from some of the other international players. one french negotiator saying they think the deadline may need to be extended. i think they are concerned about research and development by iran for fresh nuclear research going forward, and they are also worried about the time line of this deal what we believe the u.s. and iranians are talking about is a ten-year deal under which iran will be under a great deal of scrutiny. france wants 15 some say 25 years for iran to be under the microscope in the terms of this deal. so there seem to be differences among the international community. >> every angle, every side. james bayes there. good to see you have james. >>> libya's tripoli-based government says an air strike has targeted the matiga airport, delaying a group from taking off for morocco. different

mr. zarif also has critical voices at home, hard liners who oppose any deal. analysts say the stakes are high. >> the domestic political pressure that both sides are feeling have not receded in anyway, shape or form. as they continue to reach closer to that march 31st deadline, the pressure has only increased. i think you're only going to see a sense of urgency that perhaps we haven't seen before. an perhaps some greater flexibility that we haven't seen before. like any soccer or football match the craziest things have the propensity to happen as you approach the 90s minute. >>> behind closed doors the talks have made some progress, building on months of earlier negotiations. one of the main sticking points is sanctions, iran wants them all lifted as soon as possible. but the current array of e.u. u.s. and u.n. sanctions took many years to put in place. the u.s. is pressing for what it calls snap back provisions, a way that sanctions could be quickly reinstated if iran violates the terms of any deal. among the international delegations negotiating are iran, fr

kerry and mr. zarif. then there's got to be one between president obama and the congress and as you suggest given the letter that you saw two weeks ago, this could be an extremely difficult prop situation particularly once the details are out there. prime minister netanyahu was out arguing about a vague concept but it's going to be a lot easier to argue once the opponents say you're leaving them with 3,000 centrifuges? and then there's a third agreement between president rahani and the mullahs. we think that's pretty well wired. it could come unstuck as well because there are a lot of forces in iran that dislike this as much as the republicans in the senate dislike it. >> what's the b.b. factor? will it be more of the same or will he be emboldened to speak against the deal and does that make the nut harder for the president to crack? >> i think it's going to make it harder because he's got a lot of influence in congress still. >> ok. we'll be watching that. it's an amazing story. you'll be there next week

afterwards mr. zarif, it sounded like he said finally we're getting somewhere or words to that effect, so reasonbly optimistic words coming from him. he then flew off to brussels while the u.s. secretary of state flew by here on the lakeside in lausanne. watch this. >> yes james, we can see secretary kerry giving you the thumbs up as he goes by on his bicycle. certainly that optimistic feeling, perhaps not felt by other people like the saudis, for example, where the saudi prince has come out and made comments about iran, warning that an agreement would risk nuclear proliferation. what do we make of that? >> i think this is exactly why there is this real urgency at this stage why nobody thinks they can keep extending these talks forever and why these deadlines will matter. saudi arabia concern about iran near it with nuclear power. iran said it's not aiming to get a nuclear weapon, and saudis themselves saying maybe we need nuclear technology, we did a deal in the last week if with south korea for nuclear

mr. zarif made his most upbeat comments today. cameras had been kept a long way away, we could make out his words, "finally we're getting something." and meetings in brussels, a dploiks meetingdploims isdiplomacy is underway .1is. >> now he's in the home stretch. we're in the 11th hour and he probably more than anyone else with the possible exception of president obama wants to seal the deal. >> secretary kerry is expected to stay in lausanne all week. are zarif will return in the coming days but the end of the iranian new year or nauruz. time to get the deal is tight. james bays al jazeera lausanne. >> the obama administration is scrapping plans to pull thousands of troops out of afghanistan. the u.s. is planning to reduce its force from 10,000 to nearly 5500. appealing to president obama to keep more service members on the ground to help with training and counterterrorism efforts. president obama meets with ashraf ghani. >> after the uz u.s. imposed sanction he on venezuela. few now know how the new law will be used. >> sweeping

as we left mr. zarif, made his most upbeat comments today.ameras had been kept a long way away but we could make out his words. finally which -- we're getting something. he was whisked away to brussels now. >> if i'm john kerry i'm happy, because my hard work is paying off. now he's in the home stretch. we're in the 11th hour and he probably more than anyone else with the possible exception of president obama wants to seal the deal. >> reporter: sec tear kerry is expected to stay here all week the iranian delegation is due to leave at the end of the week. with the frametime line set at the end of the month, time is tense. >>> a week after republican senators sent a letter to the iranian government, some are still asking what role congress should play in these talks. >> reporter: well as the talks enter the end game back here the debate rages over whether congress will have any role at all. even as the white house accuses republicans of meddling officials insist that congress will be consulted. but it's unclear what role the president has in m

mr. zarif. analysts say the stairks are high. >> well, the domestic political pressure that both sides have been feeling have not receded in any way slaip or form. as they loom closer to that march 31st deadline the pressure only increases. you will see a sense of urgency that you haven't seen before. like a soccer or football match the craziest things have a propensity to happen as you approach the 90th minute. >> behind the doors of this opulent hotel talks have made some progress, building on months of negotiations. sanctions, iran wants them all lifted as soon as possible. but the current array of eu, u.s. and u.n. sanctions snap-back provisions a way for sanctions to be reinstated if iran violates any part of the deal. france is known to be the most hawkish almost certainly because of this, israel's newly reelected prime minister, benjamin netanyahu sent a delegation to paris earlier this week. he's strongly opposed to the sort of deal currently under discussion. here in lausanne, they know

mr. zarif also has critical voices at home hard liners who oppose any deal.nalysts say the stakes are high. >> the domestic political pressure that both sides have been feeling has not reseeded in any way shape or form and as they continue to reach closer and closer to that march 31st deadline, the pressure has only increased. so i think you're going to see a sense of urgency that we haven't seen before and greater flks flexibility that we haven't seen before. because the craziest things happen as you approach the 90th minute. >> reporter: the talks have made some progress. one of the main sticking points is sanctions. iran wants them all lifted as soon as possible. but the current array, of e.u. u.s. sanction took many years to put in place. the u.s. is pressing for what they are snap-back sanctions. among the international delegations negotiating with iran, france is known to be the most hawkish, almost certainly because of israeli's newly elected prime minister benjamin netenyahu sent a delegation to paris this past week. and is strongly opposed to a negot

mr. zarif, cnn, sir is. how is it going? >> it's going. >> it's going where, sir?audible ]. >> well a little hard to hear what he was saying in the final reply, he kept walking, but looking very relaxed. what he actually said was, we're trying. and that's certainly what we're hearing from the state department. the deadline is less than two weeks away the 31st of march for a framework agreement. what we heard from state department officials yesterday was that some progress has been made in discussing the sort of how to get around some of the technical issues the options that are available, but not so much as saying that there is an agreement, just sort of progress discussing how agreement might be made on those technical issues. political issues still remain a challenge, secretary kerry has said this is a time where iran needs to make those tough political choices about sanctions, about, if you will coming clean about tear past military use or not of nuclear material. that's still a key issue. so the deadline approaching, why no meeting so far today? we're told it's

mr. zarif, the foreign minister got his graduate degree from the university of denver.n fact there are more american ph.d.s in the iranian cabinet than there are in the obama cabinet. so they understand this. the cotton letter will make things a little more difficult for the united states. it's pretty clear this plays into the hands of the hardliners in iran saying see you can't trust these people you can't make a deal with them but the fallout from this cotton letter has been so catastrophic for the senator republican senate republicans, scathing whether on late night tv or most american newspapers it freeze obama. he has less to worry about congressional interference. they've been effectively sidelined. we are now in the end game. the next 10 to 15 days will decide whether we get this deal or not. >> from the standpoint of negotiating, joe, obviously the iranians are going to say how do we know we can trust you. how do we know who we're talking to. you have to convince us everything we talked about so far is the real deal. that's really what they're going to put on th

what happens when mr. zarif returns to tehran if he comes without any kind of framework i do not think that will change at all. i think that's unlikely, the red lines of the government in general are pretty much set out. the flexibility depends on what is being said in lausanne between officials and this meetings. peter: we could ask the same -- brendan: peter cook in washington, we could ask the same question of the. what is the most recent word in washington? peter: members of congress john boehner is in israel this week. the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell in israel. both expressing criticism of these negotiations and of the deal they believe is being crafted and lausanne. this is going to be a tough sell in congress. but not impossible -- they believe if they get the framework they can sell it to enough members of congress. olivia: the standoff has gone on 12 years, the talks were delayed six months. if this does not work out in lausanne by the end of the day what happens? peter: the question remains

. >> reporter: now i asked the iranian foreign minister here mr. zarif that he had already decided what his response was and that he'd put that out in a tweet and he said as part of that tweet he said it is high time that the united states and its allies choose between pressure or agreement, a clear push back against president obama's message and against the negotiating team here with secretary kerry clearly saying you're putting too much pressure on us. if you want an agreement, back off. there have been other interesting developments here today. two very short meetings this morning between secretary kerry and some of the iranian delegation offering not only a message for the new year of goodwill good wishes to the iranian team but also sympathy for the iranian president whose mother has died which has meant that the iranian president's brother, who's part of the negotiating team has already left for tehran. this opens the door to the possibility that more members of the iranian team may need to follow suit and go back to tehran. it is a big -- obviousl

in an exclusive interview with ann curry, mohammad zarif accuses netanyahu of fearmongering and distorting facts. >> mr. netanyahu has been proclaiming, predicting that iran will have a nuclear weapon within two, three, four years, since 1992. iran is not about to develop a nuclear weapon. we don't want to build nuclear weapons. we don't believe nuclear weapons bring security to anybody, especially not to us. >> we were able to find the tweet that he referred to from the supreme leader, "this barbaric, wolflike and infanticidal regime of israel has no cure but to be annihilated." mr. foreign minister, can you understand why jews and others would take umbrage at that kind of language? >> no, i won't. this is a regime. we're talking about mr. netanyahu who has butchered innocent children in gaza. we're not talking about annihilation of jews. we never have and never will. for somebody who comes to u.s. congress, tries to create this hysteria about something that doesn't exist. we never had a bomb. we will never have a bomb. but he does have a bomb. he has 200 nuclear weapons. >> why should americans trust

mr. carry arrived in switzerland for talks with iran's foreign minister mohammed zarif on iran's nuclear program. before leaving, kerry raced the prospects 69 direct talks with the assad government saying the sdmrus would have to negotiate to the end with assad. . >> we are working very hard with other interested parties to see if we can reignite a diplomatic outcome. why? because everybody agrees there is no military solution. there is only a political solution. but to get the assad regime to negotiate, we are going to have to make it clear to him that there is a determination by everybody to seek that political outcome and change his calculation about negotiating. >> that's underway right now. and i am convinced that with the efforts of our allies and others, there will be increased pressure on assad. >> those comments four years to the day since the incidents which began syria's civil war. march the 15th 2011. the syrian government began cracking down on demonstrations. in terms of casualties the u.n. believes now more than 220,000 syrians have bren killed more than seven and a half m

when i spoke to mr salahi i asked him a question and he said it's a question for foreign minister zarif, not whether it will impact the talks. when they sit down to talk about the nuclear programme, you will have around the table the rain iranians who have in the past been supporters of the houthis, and the u.s. who is a close ally sitting around the table talking about the nuclear programme. both sides said we are only talking about the nuclear programme. not discussing other issues like the war in syria, for example. i suspect during the talks, there'll be no discussion about the situation in yemen, but given the number of iranian officials here and the u.s. officials on the sidelines when they are staying in the statement hotel, i suspect they'll be talking about it and expect that secretary kerry, and foreign minister zarif will in their private time away from negotiations spend a bit of time on the phone with the escalating situation in yemen. >> there were talks that one of the pilots of the crashed germanwings jet was locked out of the cockpit before the plane went down. 153 peop

zarif. >> i expect any time of the day or night. >> the u.s. energy secretary ernest moniz was giving nothing away. >> mr. secretary are things going well? >> well. >> are you hopeful you will get an agreement this weekend? >> they are going. >> germany's foreign minister has told reporters when he looks at the mountains it reminds him the hardest part of any climb is the last bit. that's where we are with these negotiations. james bays, al jazeera lausanne. >> voting in nigeria's presidential election, because of violence and technical problems. yvonne ndege reports from the capital, abuja. >> rafael casts his vote for a new president and parliamentarians at the national assembly provincial office polling station in abuja. he's part of more than 60 million people taking place in this exercise. this process is happening in 120,000 locations in the country. >> the personal vote, i believe that can take us to the level this country wants to go. under security and education and the structure. >> reporter: as expected there was some violence in the north. several people were killed in yobe and gombe state as

zarif talks continual throughout the day. >> evening night. whenever. >> the u.s. energy secretary ernest monez heading the technical discussions for his country, is giving nothing away. >> mr. secretary, are things going well? >> they are going. >> do you hope to have an agreement this weekend. >> they are going. >> germany's foreign minister has told reporters when he looks at the plts mountains it reminds him the hardest climb is at the end. that's where they are. james bays, lausanne. >>> the attacks happened in towns of biri in gombe state. voting in nigeria's presidential poll has been extended for a second day. decision comes after violence and technical problems caused some voting centers to close. yvonne ndege reports from the capital, abuja. >> rafael cast his vote for a new president and parliamentarians,ing in abuja. he's one of 60 million people taking part in this historic exercise. things went smoothly here but this process is happening in 120,000 locations across the country. >> i believe that it can take us to the level we want this country to go. initial for unemployment, health care and security, and the education and structure. >> reporter: but as expect

mr. obama leaves office. is a deal now in jeopardy? >> well, i don't know yet. when i negotiate for the first time on sunday night with foreign minister zarif, i'll have a better sense of where we are. but what i do know is this letter was absolutely calculated directly to interfere with these negotiations. >> reporter: so how do you clear the air? are you going to apologize for this letter? >> not on your life. i'm not going to apologize for the-- for an unconstitutional, unthought out action by somebody hohas been in the united states senate for 60-some days. that's just inappropriate. i will explain very clearly that congress does not have the right to change an exclusive agreement. >> reporter: sunday will be the first face-to-face meeting since that political firestorm erupted, and kerry told me that up to this point, negotiators havehave made progress on limiting iran's nuclear technology, but now it's time for some tough political decisions. >> axelrod: margaret brennan traveling with the secretary of state in egypt. margaret, thank you. and you can see more of margaret's interview with secretary kerry tomorrow morning on "face the n

zarif. and one day after a speech by benjamin netanyahu. he condemned any deal as untenable, saying the current regime is unbelievable. >> well mr.ear weapon within two, three, four years since 1992. he has been on the record time and again, that iran will believe a nuclear weapon within two years. in 1992 he said iran will have a nuclear weapon within one year. he wants to stick with his one year for a decade. he do not believe that nuclear weapons bring security to anybody. this is isn't about nuclear technology, this is about scientific advancement and pride of the iranian people. it has nothing to do with nuclear weapons. and once we reach that understanding and once this hysteria is out and this fear mongering is out and then we can have a deal and it will not hurt anybody. this deal will help ensure that iran's nuclear program will always remain peaceful. we have no doubt in iran that our nuclear program is paegsful and will re -- peaceful and remains peaceful. there may be people with concerned and affected by the type of hysteria fanned by people like netanyahu and it is useful for people to allow this deal to go through.