United states congress. They and we understand that if iran had a Nuclear Weapon in context of todays troubles it would be even more problematic. I have spent almost 30 years in the United States senate and i have had the privilege and responsibility of chairing the Foreign Relations committee when we put those sanctions in place, when this regime was put in place, and that is the regime that indeed has brought this negotiation about. We are deeply grateful for congresss supports of the diplomatic path to date. We appreciate their patients. There were those agitating to take action earlier. Responsible voices held off and they helped us get to this moment and we appreciate that. We sincerely hope the members will continue to give us the time and the space that we need to fully explain the political agreement we have reached and to work out the remaining details of a final deal. Before i take a few questions, i just want to take a moment to thank some very important people. The team that has been assembled throughout this process was really made up of an Extraordinary Group of public servants, and believe me, they have served their country and the world well these days. I want to thank my cabinet colleague, the secretary of energy ernie moneys who was indispensable in his knowledge of Technical Expertise to sit down and work through some very complex issues. His background as a Nuclear Scientist and his expertise was it in helping us arrive at this moment. Also particularly i want to thank my colleague in the state department, the other secretary of state, windy sherman. She has been absolutely suburban superb, indefatigable strong, visionary, great. I also want to thank the remarkable team of experts who have kept working, who have chased down numbers instantaneously at any hour, and that goes for the team back home in the United States. In the laboratories. In the white house. In the state department. All of whom have contributed to our ability to be able to know what we are doing and to be able to put this initial agreement together. Now, i want to thank the delegations also from bd five plus one countries. Countries. Each of them were essential to help us check our own figures and thoughts and i particularly think the foreign minister of france, foreign secretary hammond from the united kingdom, Prime Minister lavrov from russia, foreign minister steinmeyer from germany every one of them showed an extraordinary commitment to this effort and they have all contributed to this outcome. And it has been every partnership with every country weighing in, every country making suggestions that i believe that their presence here tonight there affirmation their affirmation to finalize a deal is a critical component of the credibility that should begin to this effort. I also want to thank the eu for its facilitation of these talks. That begins with dame cathy ashton, who spent many, many hours over several years helping guide these talks. She worked all the way through last december, and her efforts were essential at getting the formal negotiations structured. Her successor has ceased to the baton see used the baton and done an excellent job and we thank both of them. Federicos deputy has just been superb. Helga schmidt who has been a Critical Link between the eu and the entire p5 plus one. We are incredibly thankful for her creativity and commitment. Finally i want to acknowledge the hard work of the irani and delegation. They approached this these talks with great purpose. They have been difficult. At times extremely intense. At times emotional. Always challenging. Not all of our meetings were easy. In fact, many were quite difficult, because the passions are there for everybody. But we have shown, i think diligence and respect on all sides and always kept the objective, which is a peaceful resolution of this issue, in mind. I emphasize, we still have a lot of work to do. We have agreed on the most challenging and overarching issues, but now there are a number of technical decisions that need to be made and there are still other decisions that need to be made, but we have the outline. We have the basic framing, if you will, the construction, and as we continue on our partners will demonstrate the same vigilance, same unity of purpose, same comprehensive approach and the same good faith among us that have brought us this far. Thank you and i will be happy to answer any questions. Moderator the first question is from Indira Lakshmanan from bloomberg news. Indira secretary kerry, can you tell us which gaps you were unable to reach understanding on and are any elements not be made public . How long will it take for iran to comply and for sanctions to be eased . Could be deal fall through in the next three months . And will americans being held in iran be released as a measure of goodwill if the deal is completed . Thank you. Secretary kerry well, yes, of course we have acknowledged there are some gaps. I just listed them a moment ago for you. There are issues we have to resolve. Im not going to going to all of them right now, but i think i listed several of them in my comments. We have to finish dealing with some respects to transition that is one thing we will talk about. We have other considerations with respect to the sanctions and berate timing, and so forth. But i do not think it serves any great purpose to go through all of that now. In the days ahead, there will be plenty of time to focus on that with congress and others and we look forward to those consultations. It is really a matter of anywhere from probably six months to a year or so it will take to begin to comply with all of the nuclear steps that need to be taken in order to them again facing those steps have to happen first. In the meantime, the interim agreement, the joint plan of action will continue to be implemented in full. We believe there is a real continuity in the oversight and accountability that is necessary moving forward. Finally with respect to our citizens we of course have had a number of conversations and no meeting, no date when we come together has been without conversation about our american citizens. I am not going to go into any details, except to say to you that that conversation is continuing. We have a very specific process in place to try to deal with it and we call on iran again today, now, in light of this to release these americans and let them get home with their families. We are working on that and will continue to be very focused on its. On it. Alix you have been listening to secretary of state john kerry, selling the nuclear outline to the world, to the u. S. Congress saying there is a lot of work left to do. There are gaps that remain. But on the whole, the u. S. Is concerned with iran destabilization in the reason in the region. That is what makes this important. He says it is not realistic to expect iran to capitulate and there is a lot of work to be done. Lets bring in chief washington correspondent peter cook joining at the website. Here, what has been the most controversial part of the deal so far . Peter i think a couple things stand out. These will be some of the questions you will hear almost immediately on capitol hill. The fact that iran will still be able to enrich uranium if it wants to. That is going to be controversial, even though the level of uranium enrichment will not behind enough, occurring according to what we have heard so far, to build a Nuclear Weapon. The fact that they can build any nuclear program, that will be controversial to israelis, to critics on capitol hill as well. And the other thing that will stand out, how quickly will be sanctions be eased . That will be a question for members of congress who do not want to see them eased anytime soon. The irani ands of course will be insistent it as quickly as possible. Those are some of the big questions. And i am seeing those on emails from capitol hill. Alix fair enough. Lets bring in mark halperin. Lets talk about congressional reaction. Have we seen any and what are we expecting . Mark bob corker put out a statement that i think is right where the white house would like the republicans to be, which is wait and see. Right now we are working off the white house fact sheets. We have to see if the irani is agree with the plan laid out by the administration. But the president a while ago very specific language, saying to congress, read this agreement and if you disrupted by passing additional sanctions, the United States will be blamed, really throwing down the gauntlet to congress. So far we have not heard from john boehner. We have not heard from the israel he government. The deal, as the United States outlines it, the tentative deal, waiting for the details of these negotiations, in many areas goes much further than the conventional wisdom was about what the night is taken the allies would be able to get from the United States and its allies would be able to get from iran. Some people who were reflexively poised to oppose the deal matter what was in it are looking at the u. S. And its allies and i think it is giving them some pause, because again it goes further in terms of what iran can do and how quickly the sanctions come off, how quickly they will go back on if iran is in violation. Much more than the conventional wisdom of the reporting the last few weeks. Alix peter, who is the number one person present obama needs to call right now . Peter he told us that he made some calls already. But the first person benjamin and yahoo , Prime Minister of israel. He says he will talk to him later today, do his utmost to two convince benjamin and yahoo netanyahu. That will be a tough conversation. If he does not convince him, you can be sure the Prime Minister is going to be convincing members of congress to stand in the way of this deal and that is probably the biggest challenge for this president going forward. Interesting in his comments, alix, that he said congress would be fully briefed but he never said congress would have a sign off ability on this at the end of the day. That will be a problem as well. Alix a lot of rhetoric. We will continue to monitor that as well. Thank you, peter cook, and mark halperin. We want to go to the breaking news desk where julie hyman is looking at some of the action on the street. Julie, what have you been looking at . Julie really you have to look at oil prices in the wake of this outlined agreement. That is where the market has seen the most reaction, as you may imagine with the sanctions not being lifted immediately there is an effect on the oil market in the irani and Prime Minister has said that they could boost the shipments by a billion a Million Barrels per day if the sanctions were lifted. Definitely some headlines about an agreement. We have seen a decline steadily throughout the day. As for the broader equity markets, they are Holding Steady for much of the session with a gain of around 3 10 of 1 . We added Economic Data jobless claims, factory orders. But Equity Investors are really focusing on the jobs report tomorrow, even though these two. The stock market is closed. Alix thank you so much, julie hyman at our breaking news desk. I am joined i in adviser on middle eastern and south asia and affairs from toronto. And the Foreign Affairs analyst who was also one of the original whistleblowers on Irans Nuclear bioterror weapons capability back in 2002. Can iran be trusted in this agreement . Guest i think there is a fair possibility iran can be trusted. I do not think the United States government, let alone its partners would have gone this far if they did not think iran could be trusted. I think the behavior of washington and its allies speaks volumes. Alix it appears on the surface what is your take is this better for iran or the west . Kamran we do not have a lot to go on. Most of the details we got quite a bit of detail, but there is operable as age and, there is discussion on those details that needs to calm. I think we have to be careful. And most importantly, how each side he is going to sell it to its public. We have already seen the president and secretary kerry do that pretty united date do that for the United States domestic audience. The problem here is each side has its own perspective on this. That perspective resonates in a very complicated way in each others capitals. What the president said today and was secretary kerry was saying i sure while ago, that has the potential to create problems for the rouhani government in tehran. Their opponents could jump on it and say, we conceded too much and we did not get a lot. There is a converse potential, although we have not seen much come out of Congress Just yet. Alix you make a good point. What do you think, that iran could be trusted question mark trusted . Guest i disagree with that. I certainly think the irani and government cannot be trusted. Simply because the way the world knew about the irani and Iranian Nuclear program. There are still outstanding questions out there. But in terms of the announcement made by the president today, there are too many ifs about an agreement that has not even been signed. I do not know how you can be optimistic about things because, you know, it is not clear how it will be converted into Something Else question mark when will that take place. The cases for the centrifuges. What is going to happen to the centrifuges . The president said they are not going to enrich. What happens to the centrifuges. In the case of the intrusive inspections, that was announced by the president what does that entail exactly . Does that improve the military sites . That includes the military headquarters of the weaponization part. What about what was nationally recently uncovered by the National Council of resistance . It was ambiguous because the president was not specific. And also there is a main issue that the ie iaea is having a fight, saying that those questions will be answered. When is likely to happen . That has been the case for the past two or three years. If you drag out an issue, it is tantamount to not answering it. There are so many ambiguities. Congress has a lot of work to do in terms of turning out determining what the agreement means. Alix you have definitely outlined a lot of what we dont know. Kamran, it looks to be a 15year agreement. People calling in a longerterm deal. Do you believe that, that iran can wait this out at the end of the day . Kamran it depends on what iran is getting and if it is satisfied. Obviously what came out from secretary carry secretary kerry and president obama was not something that was not already known. Therefore, i think they know what is ahead of them. Everybody has a different perspective, as i said earlier. The imperative is to make sure that iran does not have the capability to an rich to the point where it can weaponize nuclear technology. It wants to have a nuclear program, but more importantly get rid of the sanctions, and have the regime be normalized in the International Community and recognize iran in the region. I think that there is a good chance that everyone can walk away with something they can be happy about, but it is too early to say whether that will happen or not. Alix you make a good point about walking away and being happy. What is the potential to affect u. S. And iranian relations within the region . Alireza there was ace alireza there was a serious issue at the table. Iran wants to maintain its Nuclear Weapons program. That is the real purpose. There is no other purpose behind it. And at the same time, lose the sanctions. Those do not go together. At the end of the day iran continues to have its terrorist operations in the region with its proxies and iraq yemen elsewhere. Its violating the rights of its own citizens. I think at the end of the day the people of iraq are not happy. Their main concern is not the nuclear issue. The cares of the electricity in your house is coming from Nuclear Energy or oil, which is highly underdeveloped at the moment. There is not been a single new refinery in iran and 36 years. So, the question for the irani and, what happens for the everyday life of their citizens . Alix a lot more questions we have to ask. Thank you so much, gentlemen. Alireza and kamran from strafford. We do have breaking news. Julie . Julie this has to do with probes of various banks from the department of justice. According to people familiar with the matter, justices are pushing citigroup subsidiary to plead guilty. Citibank is countering with an offer that it plead guilty from a smaller unit in the bank. Citibank cna excuse me, citibank na citibank north america. That is what is behind the backandforth. An agreement could come as soon as may. The fine will probably not exceed 1 billion. This is according to a source priest briefed on the matter. But they have not decided on a particular entity to plead guilty and this case. As i mentioned, if there was a guilty plea, it could affect citigroups ability to operate certain kinds of revenue. This is an ongoing situation. The Justice Department has been conducting this lengthy probe of alleged currency market rigging. Alix it was not just citigroup. Multiple banks have been pressured in the Foreign Exchange market. Do we know anything else about the other banks at this point . Julie there seems to be a trend where the authorities want these pleas to come from larger subsidiaries and push back. Jp morgan chase were reporting they would rather have the u. K. Based subsidiary plead guilty. This is according to people familiar with the situation. It looks like maybe there are similar things going on at various banks here. Alix that accounted for 70 of the revenue last year. But digging through the story, if there is a guilty plea, they will want a waiver in exchange for that. Julie it looks like that is the situation here. This is something that a lot of folks on the street have been focused on, the alleged rigging o