In Iran sanctions news, US Senator Robert Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said: I am not a big proponent of paying to negotiate, and the $2.8 billion that we are giving Iran in essence to negotiate, which is something in their own interests, is pretty preposterous to me. At the same time, everything I understand from the status of the negotiations there are very significant breaches between the positions that I, and I believe the majority of the Congress would hold, as to what is a good deal versus where we are at. And I am increasingly worried that while I agree with the administration on the refrain, that no deal is better than a bad deal. We are continuously moving in a direction in which a bad deal may very well be viewed as a good deal because when we started this process we were told that Arak had to be closed down. We were told that Fordow would have to be closed down but now we are talking about changes.
I have always been a proponent of the type of sanctions that we had devised in the latest legislation which are prospective, which send Iran a message that if in fact they do not reach an agreement, an agreement that we would think is a good deal, that there are consequences and the consequences would be set up. I believed those before and I believe them now.
 
Senator Corker, Ranking Member of the Foreign Relations Committee:
I do want us to reach a diplomatic end. Like Senator Menendez I am very concerned about the gaps that exist from what we think is a good deal and where we are today.
I do want Congress to be able to weigh in and obviously I do want to see additional tougher sanctions put in place in the event that we do not reach an agreement. But we should be real clear. There will be no more extensions, and I think Senator Menendez, myself and so many others in Congress have concerns that again Iran is playing us… I’m still hopeful that somehow despite a very, very bad start almost agreeing to enrichment at the front end at Natanz that we may get to a place that does limit their abilities and I want to see that carried on…