US Secretary of State John Kerry says "genuine progress"​ has been made as his country and its allies are working hard with Iran over a final nuclear agreement.

US Secretary of State John Kerry says "genuine progress"​ has been made as his country and its allies are working hard with Iran over a final nuclear agreement.

“We have difficult issues that need to be resolved,” Kerry told reporters in the Austrian capital city of Vienna on Sunday. “Everybody is negotiating hard.”

"We are not going to be negotiating in the press, we are going to be negotiating quietly and privately," he added.

The top US diplomat also noted that the nuclear negotiations “could go either way.”

Kerry also repeated his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif’s statement that the two sides have never been closer to a deal.

"It is now time to see whether or not we are able to close an agreement," he said.

Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries – the US, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany – are working to finalize a historic nuclear deal.

The new self-imposed deadline for the nuclear negotiations is Tuesday.

News ID 187842