Secretary of State John Kerry.
(Image credit: Carlos Barria/AFP/Getty Images)

After months of negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program, Iran and the so-called P5+1 group — the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members, plus Germany — were unable to come up with an agreement by a midnight Thursday deadline.

The deal centers on Iran shelving its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Because a deal was not reached by midnight, Congress now has 60 days to review any potential deal before U.S. sanctions can be lifted. Previously, it had been 30 days. Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier in the day that the U.S. was not going to rush a deal, and would leave if a proper agreement was not achieved. "We are not going to sit at the negotiating table forever," he said. "But we should not get up and leave simply because the clock strikes midnight." Talks will resume in Vienna, where they have been held over the past several weeks.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.