John Kerry: Iran has hard choices to make

Nine days into marathon nuclear talks, US secretary of state John Kerry said the diplomatic efforts “could go either way”, cutting off all potential pathways for an Iranian atomic bomb or ending without an agreement that American officials have sometimes described as the only alternative to war.

“I want to be absolutely clear to with everybody: We are not yet where we need to be on several of the most critical issues,” Kerry told reporters outside the 19th-century Viennese palace that has hosted the negotiations.

World powers and Iran are hoping to clinch a deal by tomorrow, setting a decade of restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programme and granting it significant relief from international sanctions.