US ‘will only accept deal that closes off Iran’s pathways to a bomb’

US State Department spokesman John Kirby says Secretary of State John Kerry “remains in Vienna as we work toward reaching a final deal.

“We will only accept a deal that effectively closes off Iran’s pathways to a nuclear weapon. We are not there [yet], and there are some important issues to be resolved.

“If we can resolve those issues this week, we’ll have a deal. If we can’t resolve them this week, we won’t have a deal,” he continues.

Kirby claims that “there has been progress made, there’s no doubt about that, but there still remain disagreements and still differences over some particular factors” that have so far prevented the sides from reaching a deal.

“[It’s] not insignificant that you saw all ministers meeting together. Everyone is rowing on the oars to get a deal done,” Kirby states.

He adds that July 7 was not the deadline, and that the sides decided to extend the Joint Plan of Action (the interim agreement from 2013) for seven days — a “technical issue.” Kirby says an extension of the deadline “is possible, but not a certainty.”