WASHINGTON — They have spent long hours alone together. They exchange private emails. Their walk along the Rhone River in Geneva in January so unnerved hard-line lawmakers in Tehran that they signed a petition fretting about the duo’s unseemly “intimacy.”
On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Switzerland to meet again with Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister who earned a Ph.D in international law and policy from the University of Denver, to try to negotiate the very accord that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel arrived in Washington that same day to denounce.
As the deadline approaches for what could be one of the most important and divisive international agreements in decades, Mr. Kerry has become a driving force behind the complicated, seven-nation talks to limit Iran’s nuclear program. But with so much at stake, Mr. Kerry’s relentless negotiating style and determination to engage with Mr. Zarif have become part of the debate.
To proponents of the emerging accord, Mr. Kerry’s determination has made all the difference.
Whether Iran is racing toward nuclear weapon capabilities is one of the most contentious foreign-policy issues challenging the West.
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The Obama administration has sent Mr. Moniz and a team of experts to work on the technical issues with their Iranian counterparts in Montreux. But the next few weeks are expected to see a series of marathon meetings between the two foreign ministers, and with a deadline fast approaching, nobody is expecting Mr. Kerry to hold back now.
David E. Sanger contributed reporting.
A version of this article appears in print on March 2, 2015, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Kerry Pushing for Agreement in Nuclear Talks. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
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