Obama urges Senators to hold off Iran sanctions -White House

President Barack Obama warned lawmakers on Tuesday that Iran would make progress in its ability to build a nuclear weapon if there is no diplomatic deal to halt or roll back its nuclear program and urged Congress to hold off on tightening sanctions against Teheran while talks continue.        

"The president underscored that in the absence of a first step, Iran will continue to make progress on its nuclear program by increasing its enrichment capacity, continuing to grow its stockpile of enriched uranium, installing advanced centrifuges, and making progress on the plutonium track," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters at a briefing.

This as, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran can make serious progress in talks on resolving a standoff over its nuclear ambitions at a meeting of world powers in Geneva this week.        

Speaking in Rome before flying to Geneva in the evening, Zarif said there was "every possibility" of a successful conclusion to the talks with the six world powers provided there was good faith and the political will to resolve problems by all sides.          

"I'm willing to accept serious progress instead of an agreement but I'm certain that, with the necessary political will, we can make progress and even reach an agreement," he said.

This comes after US Secretary of State John Kerry pressed Iran on Monday to finalize an agreement that can prove to the world its nuclear program is peaceful, but said he has "no specific expectations" for talks in Geneva this week between major powers and Iran.

Last week, a senior US official said the six major powers and Iran were getting closer to an initial agreement, but Kerry appeared to tamp down expectations two days before talks resume.

"I have no specific expectations with respect to the  negotiation in Geneva except that we will negotiate in good faith and we will try to get a first-step agreement," Kerry told a news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Kerry said he hoped that "Iran will understand the importance of coming there prepared to create a document that can prove to the world this is a peaceful program."

"I am not going to negotiate this in public. We all need to be respectful of each others' processes here and positions - and so it's best to leave that negotiation to the negotiating table," he added, declining to discuss details of a proposal under discussion.

The six world powers are negotiating a proposal that would ease sanctions on Iran if it suspends some parts of a program that many countries, particularly in the West, fear is aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability.