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Iran talks reach turning point

US officials claim progress has been made as movement is reported on key issues.

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US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, flanked by Ali Akbar Salehi, president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, and a team of advisers from each country, as well as the European Union, sit down in Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 23, 2015. — State Department

GENEVA — US and Iranian nuclear negotiators cited progress made but more work to be done at the conclusion of some of the highest level talks held between the two nations, involving four Cabinet secretaries and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s brother.

But in some ways, this low-key meeting at a hotel on the Geneva lakeside felt like a turning point in over a year of negotiations to reach a final nuclear accord that has already required two extensions. It was not so much in the typically cautious, much caveated language negotiators used to describe their progress, but in their body language that negotiators showed signs of growing confidence that they may be on track to reach a political agreement on major elements of a final nuclear accord in the coming weeks.

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