PROGRESS? – AT 11:58 A.M. ET:  There are some tentative reports of progress at the Iran nuclear talks.  But there enough caveats to fill a page.  We can't really confirm this, but many news organizations are reporting it.  From CNN:   

(CNN) Experts from the countries involved in the Iran nuclear negotiations have reached a tentative agreement on language dealing with sanctions relief, a source familiar with the talks told CNN on Saturday.

This is the first noticeable sign of progress in these discussions, which have been slow-going. However, the source said there is a lot of work to do and this language still has to be presented to the foreign ministers of the countries involved in the talks, meaning this is far from complete.

Earlier, a senior administration official told the pool traveling with Secretary of State John Kerry that "Even if and when issues get resolved at an experts level, there will remain some open issues that can only be decided by ministers."

A source directly involved in the talks said the sides would declare at a deal signing that sanctions are lifted, allowing Iran to claim at home that they got immediate relief. But the sanctions would only be lifted over time as Iran meets its various obligations, allowing the West to stick to its commitment to conditional relief.

COMMENT:  Let's see what happens when this "agreement" reaches the next level.  There is a long way to go in these talks, and they won't be finished on Tuesday, which is the new deadline.  If they go to Thursday, the 9th, that triggers a provision in American law that would give Congress a full 60 days to examine any agreement that might be adopted. 

July 4, 2015