Denis Balibouse/Reuters
Secretary of State John Kerry was welcomed at the Geneva International airport on Friday.
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and MARK LANDLER
GENEVA — Secretary of State John Kerry arrived here on Friday to lead a concerted diplomatic push to close an interim nuclear deal with Iran, though he cautioned before plunging into negotiations, “There are important gaps that have to be closed.”
Cutting short a tour of the Middle East to join European foreign ministers and their Iranian counterpart, Mr. Kerry sought to temper rising expectations of an imminent deal.
“I want to emphasize: there is not an agreement at this point in time,” Mr. Kerry told reporters at his hotel. “There are still some important issues on the table that are unresolved.”
But the mere fact of Mr. Kerry’s presence here suggests that the United States believes that a deal is within reach, and that it requires higher-level participation to resolve the remaining issues. Mr. Kerry will meet with Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, who oversees the multiparty negotiations, about 6 p.m.
Before that, he will hold separate meetings with Ms. Ashton; the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius; and the British foreign secretary, William Hague, as the major powers coordinate their own bargaining positions.
The German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, is also expected to join the push for an agreement.
The State Department’s spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said in a statement that Mr. Kerry was in Geneva “in an effort to help narrow the differences in the negotiations.”
Mr. Fabius told reporters soon after arriving here on Friday that progress had been made during the latest round of talks with Iranian diplomats, which began on Thursday, but added, “Nothing is hard and fast yet.”
“We are working to reach an accord which completes the first step to respond to Iran’s nuclear program,” he said.
American officials have cast the accord as a first step that would halt the progress in Iran’s nuclear program for perhaps six months to give negotiators time to pursue a more comprehensive agreement. In return, the United States would relax some financial sanctions.
Expectations that the world powers are about to conclude a preliminary accord with Iran have angered Israel and some Arab states.
Mr. Kerry met in Israel on Friday for more than two hours with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before flying to Geneva.
Afterward, Mr. Netanyahu delivered a blistering statement that accused the United States of rushing into a deal that would do little to reduce Iran’s nuclear efforts while alleviating the economic pressure on Tehran.
“The deal that is being discussed in Geneva right now is a bad deal,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Iran is not required to take apart even one centrifuge. But the international community is relieving sanctions on Iran for the first time after many years.”
“I urge Secretary Kerry not to rush to sign, to wait, to reconsider, to get a good deal,” Mr. Netanyahu added.
Mr. Kerry was adamant during his visit to Israel this week that the West would not rush into a deal with Iran.
In a joint interview with Israeli and Palestinian journalists on Thursday, he said, “I have said many times we will not make a deal that’s a bad deal, that leaves any of our friends or ourselves exposed to a nuclear weapons program.”
The United States, Mr. Kerry said, also would not dismantle its sanctions until it had “absolute clarity about what is happening.” Administration officials said a more likely option would be for the West to free some Iranian assets that are frozen in overseas banks.
But Iranian officials have made it clear that Tehran intends to preserve its right to enrich uranium as part of an interim understanding and also a final deal. Israel has argued that Iran’s ability to enrich uranium needs to be eliminated to ensure that it does not maintain the option to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has said its nuclear program is for civilian energy purposes only.
There was no indication that foreign ministers from Russia or China, the other members of the so-called P5-plus-1 nations — the world powers involved in the talks — were planning to attend.
While Iran was a major topic of discussion between Mr. Kerry and Mr. Netanyahu, the secretary of state also went to Israel to press the prime minister on negotiations with the Palestinians, which he tried to reinvigorate in several days of shuttle diplomacy.
Mr. Kerry met with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in Amman, Jordan, on Thursday evening. Mr. Abbas has complained that Israel is continuing to approve settlement construction in the West Bank, poisoning the atmosphere for direct negotiations.
But Mr. Netanyahu said Wednesday that the Palestinians were inciting discord and manufacturing crises to avoid making difficult decisions in the negotiations.
On Friday, he appeared to harden his stance further, telling reporters: “I will never compromise on Israel’s security and our vital interests, not in the face of any international pressure. I think the pressure has to be put where it belongs. That is, on the Palestinians who refuse to budge.”
At times this week, Mr. Kerry has appeared frustrated with the Israelis. On Wednesday, he appealed to the Israeli authorities to keep a lid on new settlement construction during the negotiations.
In his interview with Israeli and Palestinian journalists, Mr. Kerry used unusually pointed language in prodding the Israelis. “The alternative to getting back to the talks is the potential of chaos,” he said. “I mean, does Israel want a third intifada?”
Michael R. Gordon reported from Geneva, and Mark Landler from Tel Aviv. Jodi Rudoren contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
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