everyone will get back the foreign minister secretary of state kerry will go back to switzerland and resume negotiations. they have a march 31st deadline for at least a framework. deal or no deal? i think they re very close. i think the biggest part of the disagreement is over iran s insistence that the majority of sanctions should be lifted something that s not easy to do. i think also both sides know that they have a tough job dealing with the hard liners or critiques or conservatives and on this side republicans at home. therefore, they re trying to get the best the best deal on the table that would make selling it at home easier. and that makes it very tricky. the dean of the school of international studies the johns hopkins university. full disclosure i m a graduate of that school. will the reversal help repair the rift serious rift with the obama administration? and claims from the u.s. senate floor that racism is
39% chose republicans in congress. although overall men chose congress and one in ten people chose neither. alisyn? okay. michelle thanks so much for that analysis. well the deadline to reach a nuclear deal with iran less than two weeks away european negotiators say talks have reached a critical phase with broad disagreements remaining. cnn s senior international correspondent nic robertson has more from london. the clock is ticking down to the march 31st deadline. a two-hour meeting this morning between the foreign minister of iran zarif and secretary kerry. we re not clear yet, we haven t been briefed on what came out of the meeting. we know that the five-hour session yesterday didn t seem to go well. state department officials saying there are still differences that need to be bridged. that iran needs to make some necessary and tough choices.
nic robertson. what is the latest nic? reporter: they have been in talks, secretary kerry and iranian prime minister have been in talks for hours. the issue of the letter did come up. although state department officials not saying what and how kerry responded to it. it came up as well in lower level meetings sunday. it is an issue for the iranians. they are putting it out there. there is a lot of issues because what we are hearing from the five-hour session yesterday, they feel the iranian side still have tough and necessary choices to make. these are sort of political judgments, if you will. they are not sure that this march 31st deadline for a framework agreement can be achieved. this was echoed later in the day. zariff went to brussels and saying a glimmer of hope.
switzerland to try to negotiate a nuclear deal with iran. earlier today kerry met with iran s foreign minister for about two hours. despite a five-hour meeting on monday the state department says there are still major gaps that need to be ironed out. according to reports, iran confronted the u.s. about the controversial letter from republican lawmakers warning that a nuclear deal won t last. the big question now of course with increased tensions whether both sides will be able to strike a deal by that march 31st deadline. meanwhile, here at home president obama says that he is quote, embarrassed for the 47 gop senators behind that controversial letter. during an interview with vice news the president slammed lawmakers calling their actions close to unprecedentsed. i m embarrassed for them. yeah. because it s not how america does business. for them to address a letter to the ayatollah, the supreme leader of iran who they claim
leader of iran, who they claim is our mortal enemy, and their basic argument is don t deal with our president because you can t trust him to follow through on an agreement, that s close to unprecedented. reporter: despite the tough talk the freshman senator is not backing down. the congress stands ready to impose much more severe sanctions. reporter: he s gaining critics who point out he once mocked the president s communications with iran s leadership. like a lovestruck teenager he s sent four secret letters to the ayatollah. reporter: over the weekend, the white house chief of staff send a letter to gop senator bob corker assuring him congress will have a role to play and will have to take a vote. the white house conceded they would rather congress stay out of the process for months well beyond the march 31st deadline for a framework agreement. for all of the hyperventilating on capitol hill there is no agreement that