LAUSANNE, Switzerland     Down-to-the-wire negotiations to restrict Irans nuclear    program and ease sanctions are ready to kick off under the    pressure of a self-imposed deadline only two weeks away.  
    Secretary of State John F. Kerry arrived in Lausanne on Sunday    evening and was to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad    Javad Zarif on Monday. Other members of the U.S. negotiating    team, including Undersecretary of State for Political    Affairs Wendy Sherman and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz,    arrived earlier and were seen wandering the grounds of a    luxury hotel where the discussions will take place    in this lakeside city near the border with France.  
    After more than a decade of talks that gained momentum over the    past year and a half, there is a last-chance feel to the latest    round. The discussions have been stalled over the pace of    sanctions relief, inspections and the size of Irans nuclear    capacity.  
    The negotiations with Iran are being conducted by six world    powers  the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and    Germany. They have said that they want a framework for an    agreement by the end of this month, leaving three months to    work out some complex technical details.  
    Kerry said, though, in a CBS interview that aired Sunday that    many of the technical differences have already been resolved.  
    By and large, most of the differences now are political    decisions that need to be made in order to fulfill the promise    of proving to the world that a program is peaceful, he said in    the interview, conducted Saturday in Egypt, where he was    attending a regional economic conference.  
    Kerry added that Tehran, to its credit, has thus far lived up    to every part of the agreement we made over a year ago,    referring to an interim agreement that has stalled parts of    Irans nuclear program.  
    The talks are being held against the backdrop of a political    firestorm in Washington, after 47 Republicans sent an open    letter to Irans leaders warning that Congress would not    necessarily go along with an agreement and that a future    president could overturn it.  
    [Read: The misguided,    condescending letter from Republican senators to Iran]  
    Kerry said a third extension of the interim deal is unlikely.  
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Iran nuclear talks set to resume