[caption id="attachment_156522" align="alignright" width="186"] President Obama said Iran has met its commitments regarding its nuclear program under an interim deal signed over a year ago.[/caption]

US President Barack Obama has said Iran has met its commitments under the interim nuclear deal and that there has been progress in nuclear talks between Tehran and the P5+1.

“Just over a year ago we reached an initial understanding regarding Iran’s nuclear program and both sides have kept our commitments,” Obama said Thursday in his annual video message marking Nowruz, the Persian New Year.

“The days and weeks ahead will be critical, our negotiations have made progress, but gaps remain,” he stated.

Iran and the P5+1 – the US, Britain, Russia, China, France and Germany – are currently negotiating to reach a comprehensive agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program as a deadline slated for July 1 draws closer.

On the fifth day of the latest round of negotiations in the Swiss city of Lausanne, a meeting was held between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Following his talks with Kerry, Zarif said the negotiations have reached an extremely complicated point.

The new talks kicked off in the Swiss city on Sunday with Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi and US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz holding high-level technical negotiations.

Experts from Iran and the US as well as the AEOI spokesman, Behrouz Kamalvandi, also participated in the meeting.

The two sides have already missed two self-imposed deadlines for inking a final agreement since they signed an interim accord in the Swiss city of Geneva in November 2013.

In his video message, Obama also said that the US and Iran “should be able to resolve this issue peacefully with diplomacy”.

He said Washington has “hopes for progress between the Islamic Republic of Iran” and the United States.  “This year we have the best opportunity in decades to pursue a different future between our countries”.

By Press TV