7 July Deadline Passes. . .

State Department Spokesperson John Kirby reports the talks are extended (sort of) until 10 July:  "in order to allow for additional time to negotiate we’re going to take the necessary technical steps we need for the measures of the Joint Plan of Action to remain in place through July 10th. Secretary Kerry will remain in Vienna to continue discussions with our P5+1 partners, High Representative Mogherini, and Foreign Minister Zarif. We’re taking these negotiations hour by hour, day by day, and we made substantial progress, I think, in many areas. But the work is highly technical and very, very important for everybody concerned. So again, I think this was a practical step that needed to be taken, and it was taken, and Secretary Kerry and the team remain out there . . . ." The conference continued . . .

"QUESTION: But I mean, that begs the question: Is the – I guess it goes back to whether a deal is possible this week. I mean, we understand that you kind of went past the deadline because you want to keep the momentum, but is there enough momentum to really close this or is just the effort to not give up keeping you there?
MR KIRBY: I don’t think it’s either, Elise. I don’t – and I wouldn’t – again, I wouldn’t want to – I don’t want to predict what will happen or what won’t happen. But I think that everybody realized that, first of all, this isn’t a new deadline. It’s an extension of the JPOA parameters so that negotiators can stay at work. And there’s no specific reason for why the 10th was chosen other than that’s when the ministers together decided that it was – that that was a good date to put out there. So I wouldn’t read into this extension that we’re definitely closer to something or that we’re so far apart that we just – we had to have more work."

The EU Foreign Policy Chief agreed in an Al-Jazeera report (unattributed): "The US statement comes as European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also said that negotiators "are continuing the talks for the next couple of days" beyond the July 7 deadline. 'This does not mean we are extending our deadline. I told you one week ago more or less, we are interpreting in a flexible way our deadline, which means that we are taking the time, the days we still need, to finalise the agreement,' she said."

Meanwhile, both the EU and US extended the sanctions freeze on Iran through Friday.

And, as Reuters (Irish & Mohammad) reports, this is probably it: "The source from one power, however, said there would be a time limit. 'We've come to the end,' said the source, on condition of anonymity. 'We have just made one, final extension. It is hard to see how or why we would go beyond this. Either it happens in the next 48 hours, or not.'"