sense of urgency. so when i talk to the families, we remind them of the fact that that is a mission that will continue and has been worked on consistently throughout their captivity. and earlier this week i talked to the brother of jason rezian, the washington post correspondent who has been in a tehran jail for 11 months. and in vienna sara and her husband. her brother, a former marine went to visit his ailing grandmother in iran four years ago. he s been in jail here almost the entire time in tehran and this michigan family is desperate. what is your message to the iranians, some of the top iranians from the foreign minister to president rouhani s brother right now here in vienna?
the talks continued past yesterday s original deadline. iran s foreign minister zarif was asked about the new july 7th deadline. we will continue and we will make progress. we have made progress and we will make progress. as you hear i asked secretary kerry about that moments ago and he said we have a difference sense of deadlines. meanwhile, president obama has answered critic who say the u.s. has already conceded too much in these nuclear talks including former foreign policy officials from democratic and republican white houses. i ve said from the start i will walk away from the negotiations if in fact it s a bad deal. if the inspections regime verification regime is inadequate, we re not going to get a deal. and we ve been very clear to the iranian government about that.
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.
and that they and the state department are not clear that the 31st of march deadline is achievable. zarif came out of the meeting yesterday saying well finally we ve got something. you know an indication there that he felt that he was making some gains, but then he went to europe yesterday, met with the french germany and british and told the reuters that significant gaps remain. despite the long session with the europeans, differences hadn t been narrowed. that seems to be the tone around the talks. the talks are going on. but the gaps are still there. and that s a problem. michaela? how to bridge those gaps is the biggest challenge. nic, thanks so much. a huge turnout is expected as israelis head to the polls this morning. prime minister benjamin netanyahu pledging if there were re-elected there will not be a palestinian state. reversing course on promises he made to the u.s.
and more americans chose the president. about 47%. overall, though men chose congress and about one in ten of those who responded chose the ever-popular neither. john? i don t know if that s a viable option in this case but michelle kosinski thanks so much. european officials say nuclear talks with iran are in a critical phase, with broad disagreements remaining. cnn senior international correspondent nic robertson tracking developments for us. well the foreign minister of iran zarif, sat down with secretary of state john kerry this morning, so there was a chance they were going to begin to try to bridge some of those differences. it was a two-hour meeting. they had five hours yesterday. after that meeting yesterday, state department officials said look now is the time for iran to take tough and necessary choices. the deadline is looming, the 31st of march. and they re not sure frankly