--- title: Iran Nuclear Agreement: John Kerry to Meet With Zarif in Vienna description: Secretary of State: "We have some very significant gaps still" canonical: https://time.com/2979517/john-kerry-iran-vienna-nuclear-agreement/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-13T16:50:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:07:02.784Z article:section: Politics og:title: Iran Nuclear Agreement: John Kerry to Meet With Zarif in Vienna og:description: Secretary of State: "We have some very significant gaps still" og:url: https://time.com/2979517/john-kerry-iran-vienna-nuclear-agreement/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc5b045a6eaaaa039/69869b89e8524b3635603dd3/2014-07-13t124803z_1404002297_gm1ea7d1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1450 og:image:height: 816 og:image:alt: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry waits for the start of a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Vienna og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Iran Nuclear Agreement: John Kerry to Meet With Zarif in Vienna twitter:description: Secretary of State: "We have some very significant gaps still" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc5b045a6eaaaa039/69869b89e8524b3635603dd3/2014-07-13t124803z_1404002297_gm1ea7d1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Kerry Warns 'Significant Gaps' Remain on Nuclear Deal With Iran > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jul 13, 2014 4:50 PM UTC  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Vienna, July 13, 2014. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Vienna, July 13, 2014. Heinz-Peter Bader—Reuters  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jul 13, 2014 4:50 PM UTC Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Vienna Sunday to participate in nuclear negotiations with Iran, and attempt to salvage a deal that officials say is not close at hand. “We have some very significant gaps still, so we need to see if we can make some progress, and I really look forward to a very substantive and important set of meetings and dialogues,” said Kerry, who will meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday, as well as officials from France, Germany and the U.K, according to a U.S. State Department official. “It is vital to make certain that Iran is not going to develop a nuclear weapon, that their program is peaceful,” Kerry said. An interim agreement last November between Iran and a group of powers known as the P5+1 (the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, China and Russia) halted the expansion of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for eased sanctions. The deadline to reach a final agreement is July 20, a goal that Obama officials sounded hopeful about reaching earlier this year. But the tone in Washington has recently turned more pessimistic, and many experts now expect a six-month extension of the deal as the two sides struggle to strike a longer-term bargain. Iran is pushing for a much greater enrichment capability than the U.S. is interested in granting, a senior U.S. administration official said on Saturday. “On some key issues, Iran has not moved from their, from our perspective, unworkable and inadequate positions that would not in fact assure us that their program is exclusively peaceful,” said the official, who noted that Sunday’s meetings are not about discussing the extension. “All you had to do is listen this week to the public comments coming from some in Iran’s leadership to see that we are still very far apart on some issues, and obviously, on enrichment capacity,” the official continued. “The numbers we’ve seen them putting out publicly go far beyond their current program, and we’ve been clear that in order to get an agreement, that their current program would have to be significantly reduced.” Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on NBC’s _Meet the Press_ Sunday that his country [“doesn’t see any benefit in Iran developing a nuclear weapon”](http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/iran-foreign-minister-we-are-not-seeking-nukes-n154471) and will continue to demonstrate its commitment to not developing a nuclear weapons program. _\-With reporting by Michael Crowley_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2979517/john-kerry-iran-vienna-nuclear-agreement/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2979517/john-kerry-iran-vienna-nuclear-agreement/"},"headline":"Kerry Warns 'Significant Gaps' Remain on Nuclear Deal With Iran","datePublished":"2014-07-13T16:50:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:07:02.784Z","description":"Secretary of State arrives in Vienna for talks as a senior U.S. administration official says Iran won't budge from \"unworkable and inadequate\" position on enrichment","url":"https://time.com/2979517/john-kerry-iran-vienna-nuclear-agreement/","keywords":["Iran"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc5b045a6eaaaa039/69869b89e8524b3635603dd3/2014-07-13t124803z_1404002297_gm1ea7d1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc5b045a6eaaaa039/69869b89e8524b3635603dd3/2014-07-13t124803z_1404002297_gm1ea7d1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry waits for the start of a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Vienna","caption":"U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry waits for the start of a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Vienna","creditText":"Heinz-Peter Bader—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/iran/","name":"Iran"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2979517/john-kerry-iran-vienna-nuclear-agreement/","name":"Kerry Warns 'Significant Gaps' Remain on Nuclear Deal With Iran"}}]}] ```