and i want to say tonight that. foreign minister zarif worked hard deliberated hard and we are. obviously we believe better that decision was made to come here than not to and to work hard to reach an agreement and we thank. the foreign minister for those efforts. together now we need to set about the critical task of proving to the world what iran has said many times that its program is in fact peaceful now with this first step we have created the time and the space in order to be able to pursue a comprehensive agreement that would finish the work that president obama get began on the very first day in office and that is to ensure that iran

does not obtain a nuclear weapon president obama worked intensively and his administration worked intensively before i even came in when i was in the congress and voted for sanctions that the president worked in order to put in place a significant sanctions regime an unprecedented regime. and he worked with countries around the world in order to ensure broad participation and support for these sanctions that has been essential to the success of these sanctions and we believe that it is the sanctions that have brought us to this negotiation and ultimately to the more significant negotiation to follow for a comprehensive agreement make no mistakes and i ask you don't.

interpret that the sanctions were an end unto themselves they weren't the goal of the sanctions was always to have a negotiation and that is precisely what is now taking place and that negotiations goal is to secure a strong and verifiable agreement they guarantees the peacefulness of iran's nuclear program for more than four years the international community has been united in its willingness to negotiate in good faith and we have been particularly crystal clear that we will do whatever is necessary in order to prevent iran from having a nuclear weapon we have also said that we prefer a peaceful solution a peaceful path for iran to respond to the international community's concerns and as a result of those efforts we took the first step today to move down that path the

measures that we have committed to will remain in place for six months and they will address the most urgent concerns about iran's nuclear program since they have been many premature and even misleading reports i want to clearly outline what this first step entails first it locks the most critical components of a nuclear program into place and impedes progress in those critical components in a way that actually rolls back the stockpile of enrich uranium and widens the length of time possible for breakout that makes people safer with daily access we will gain daily access to keep facilities. and that will

enable us to determine more quickly and with greater certainty than ever before that iran is complying here's how we do that iran has agreed to suspend all enrichment of uranium above five percent aranda has agreed to dilute or convert its entire stockpile of twenty percent enriched uranium so let me make clear what that means that means that whereas a rand today has about two hundred kilograms of twenty percent enriched uranium that could readily be enriched towards a nuclear weapon in six months iran will have zero zero iran will not increase its stockpile of three point five percent lower enrich uranium over the next six months and it will not construct additional enrichment facilities. iran will not manufacture centrifuges beyond those that are

broken and must be replaced very importantly iran will not commission or fuel the iraq reactor iraq a r a k reactor an unfinished facility that if it became operational would provide iran with an alternative plutonium path to nuclear weapons and to ensure that these commitments are met iran has agreed to submit its program to unprecedented monitoring for the international community this first step will provide the most far reaching insight and view of iran's nuclear program that the international community has ever had this first step. let me be clear this first step does not say that iran has

a right to enrichment no matter what interpretive comments are made it is not in this document there is no right to enrich within the four corners of the n.p.t. and this document does not do that rather the scope and role of iran's enrichment as is set forth in the language within this document says that iran's peaceful nuclear program is subject to a negotiation and to mutual agreement and it can only be by mutual agreement that enrichment might or might not be able to be decided on in the course of negotiations so what is on the other side of the ledger here again there been a number of premature reports the reaction so i want to be clear about what this step provides this first step and what it doesn't provide in return for the

significant steps that iran will take that i just listed and there are more incidentally than i just listed those the principle the international community will provide to ran with relief that is a limited and perhaps most importantly reversible the main elements of this relief would hold iran's oil sales steady and permit it to repatriate four point two billion dollars from those sales and that would otherwise be destined for an overseas account restricted by our sanctions. in addition we will suspend certain sanctions on imports of gold and precious metals iran's auto sector and iran's petrochemical exports potentially potentially providing iran with about one point five billion in additional export

revenues for the benefit of the iranian people we will also facilitate humanitarian transactions that are already allowed by us law no us law will be changed nothing will have to be different in fact the sanctions laws specifically exempt humanitarian assistance so this channel will not provide iran to any new source of funds but we will help them in order to try to provide the people of iran with additional assistance it simply improves access to goods that were never intended to be denied to the iranian people now i want to emphasize the core sanctions architecture that president obama together with allies and friends around the world have put together that core architecture remains firmly in place through these six months including

with respect to oil and financial services to put this number in perspective during this six month phase the oil sanctions that will remain in place will continue to cause over twenty five billion in lost revenues to iran or over four billion dollars a month that is compared to what iran earned before this took effect. the sanctions and while rand will get access to the four point two billion that i talked about of the restricted oil revenues fourteen to sixteen billion of its sales during this period will be locked up and out of reach together with our partners we are committed to maintaining our commitment to vigorously enforcing the vast majority of the sanctions that are currently in place again let me repeat

this is only the first step but it is a first step that guarantees while you take the second step and move towards a comprehensive agreement iran's fundamentals of its program are not able to progress forward out natanz iraq and other centrifuge and other things that matter so that is a critical first step and i will say to all of you that as we conclude this first round of negotiations with the beginning of the possibility of a much broader accomplishment down the road it is our responsibility to be as firmly committed to diplomacy and as relentless in our resolve over the years as we have been to bring the concerted pressure that brought us to this moment for the iranian government it's their responsibility to recognize that this first phase is

a very simple test many times around and i think you heard the foreign minister here tonight reiterate that they have a peaceful program that's their only intention folks it is not hard to prove peaceful intent if that's what you want to do. we are anxious to try to make certain that this deal ultimately will do exactly that prove it and i would just say. finally. i know that there are those who will assert that this deal is imperfect well they to bear responsibility and that is to tell people what the better alternative is some might say we should simply continue to increase pressure just

turn up the screws continue to put sanctions on and somehow that's going to push around towards capitulation or collapse not by any interpretation that we have from all the experts and all of the input that we have and from all of the countries the p five plus one that took place in this today none of them believe that would be the outcome instead we believe that while we are engaged in that effort our iran's program would actually march forward it would gain and while it gains it would become more dangerous in the region and countries like israel and the emirates other people in the region who are threatened would in fact be more threatened so we believe that you would wind up with an iran with bigger stockpiles with more advanced centrifuges and more progress at pursuing a plutonium track and president obama believes that doesn't benefit anybody

in one nine hundred sixty eight seventy three is nineteen excuse me in two thousand and three when the iranians made an offer to the former administration with respect to their nuclear program there were one hundred sixty four centrifuges. that offer was not taken subsequently sanctions came in and today there are nineteen thousand centrifuges and growing so people have a responsibility to make a judgment about this choice and i am comfortable as is president obama that we have made the right choice for how you proceed to get a complete agreement moreover making sanctions the sum total of our policy will not strengthen the international coalition that we have built in order to bring iran to the negotiating table instead it would actually weaken that coalition and many people believe that to merely continue at

a time where rand says we're prepared to negotiate would in fact break up the current sanctions regime others argue for military action as a first resort well president obama and i do not share a belief that war is a permanent solution and it should never be the first option instead that particular option involves enormous risks in many different ways and as president obama has often said while that option remains available to us and the president will not take it off the table he believes that that can only be entertained after we have made every effort to resolve the dispute through diplomacy barring some immediate emergency that requires a different response so i close by saying to all of you that the singular objective

that brought us to geneva remains our singular objective as we leave geneva and that is to ensure that iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon in that singular objective we are resolute. foreign minister zarif emphasizes that they don't intend to do this and the supreme leader has indicated there is a fatwa which forbids them to do this we want to see the process put in place by which all of that is proven not through words but with actions and we are prepared to work in good faith with mutual respect. to work in a way as we did in the last days cordially with an atmosphere that was respectful even as it was tough as we more towards the process of making

certain that this threat will be eliminated in that singular objective we are absolutely resolute and in the mission we are absolutely committed and in that endeavor we would do everything in our power to be able to succeed and i'm happy to answer a couple of questions the first question will be from an geren of the washington post and you've just been listening to secretary of state john kerry talking about the implications of the groundbreaking deal in geneva today between iran and six to go sheeting world powers and let me remind you of the key points that he made in the speech and in fact what the deal implies well first iran will reduce its uranium enrichment from twenty to a maximum of five for sand and this level ensures the peaceful use of atomic material so iran is also supposed to stop adding new centrifuges sticking to outdated equipment and keep the have a water reactor near the town of iraq non-operational the u.n.

should have around the clock ability to check and control and activity at the enrichment plants in return sanctions will be lifted allowing to iran to regain control of some of its assets said to be worth up to four billion dollars for a period of up to six months so these are just some of the key points here in this deal reached today in geneva between iran and the six world and go shading powers on this issue we can now return to the rise of oil rich who is in the pan and iran acts for it and we can continue talking about the deal and what it implies in fact will surat i hope you heard some of what john kerry just said about this deal and some portions you know at the beginning of his speech actually did mention israel saying that israel is. u.s. ally and this deal will make israel safer what do you make of the geopolitical situation now in the region with the three world powers like israel iran and u.s. what is their relationship going to be like now. you know mr it's america has been

misinforming the public not just american public but the whole world for such a long time that it's going to be very difficult for them to step back away from that to mention that iran is a threat to israel it's just something that's the fantasy and if it's a fantasy this been built in order to continue supporting israel to sell arms to the arab neighbors in the region and also to to distract from everything that is rather than the region israel has between two hundred and four hundred nuclear warheads and if ever iran were to pose a threat to israel whether a nuclear attack or if it were to build nuclear bombs which it has not decided it is no match for israel's nuclear arsenal and america would come to israel's aid to say that iran is

a threat to israel and we're doing these things to eat is the threat is just does not make sense to anyone who might know a little bit about iraq even though even for somebody who doesn't know anything but there are you know how will the relationship change between the u.s. and iran now do you think. this thing of washington will review its attitude toward the iran and will stop seeing iran as a threat and how will the relationship develop in that direction in your opinion. to be honest with you washington is not run by the president. and i mean washington it is run its foreign policy it's quiet by lobby groups and congressional members at the moment especially with this president are far more powerful than the store bomber so to think that things will change now because there's been this initial first step it's it's it's being very optimistic and it's good to be optimistic but one has to be realistic and already before listening to stick

a i was listening to c.n.n. which is america's main mouthpiece which tends to be neutral and you can see still hear the same rhetoric about iran so you know as i said it taken thirty four years to build it will to demonize iran it will not go away overnight and if there's no will for it to go away yes mr obama may have had the political will is still out on that as far as i'm concerned but the united states congress the lobby groups the think tanks the media then i was on board with this well you know we're just going back to what the u.n. secretary of state john kerry said today and in fact you know what stipulated in the deal reached in geneva it seems like there is ground for you know more say contradictions there and you know disagreements because on the one hand we've heard the iranian foreign minister saying that iran does have the right to enrich uranium

whereas john kerry said no. point blank and zero so where do you see the relations and sad the negotiations going from this point i mean say six months down the road. you know something that i did not hear mr kerry mention i don't run in foreign minister mentioned i do know here in that part of his talk they talk about the twenty percent enriched uranium now many of your viewers may not know that the twenty percent enriched uranium is for medical isotopes it's not nuclear it's still considered low enrich uranium it's not weapons grade and the reason that in the past negotiations have not gone anywhere simply with regard to the twenty percent enriched uranium of the medical isotopes is there is a global shortage of it now if you want is to give up its twenty percent enriched uranium which is used for medical research council here and they cannot supply iran with the medical isotopes because there is a shortage then that's going to be

a sticking point maybe today they are happy that this signed the deal but down the line it will be a sticking point as are many of the other points like the our heavy water reactor are right soraya thanks so much for giving us your inside and. how you see the situation and. how you see the you know things will progress after these talks in geneva were today iran and six world powers have reached a deal and a story deal i should say over iran's nuclear program talking to us from the u.s. was for all rich and the panel iranian expert thank you so much very much appreciate your views here on r.t. well despite hailing the deal with iran u.s. president obama said the majority of american sanctions against iran will stay in place now we can cross live to our correspondent if you can who is in our washington bureau so. it's very happy ways do tell us their reaction from the

united states i mean we know that the u.s. leader i have to say and is specifically why the u.s. leader had to say in the success of the geneva talks. well right actually president obama called the the most tangible progress the u.s. has made with iran since he took office president obama said in return for iran scaling back its nuclear program there will be quote a modest sanctions relief the relief would include freeing up a small portion of the alliance overseas currency accounts and easing other trade restrictions he said but u.s. would refrain from imposing new sanctions because it would undermine the breakthrough deal that they just reached with iran and the deal is nonetheless temporary so it will have to pass the test of six months before a more durable agreement is negotiated so building trust is going to be very important within the next six months here is what the president. or side the united

states and our friends and allies have agreed to provide iran with modest relief while continuing to apply our toughest sanctions we will refrain from imposing new sanctions and we will allow the iranian government excess to a portion of the revenue that they have been denied through sanctions but the broader architecture of sanctions will remain in place and we will continue to enforce them vigorously and if iran does not fully meet its commitments during the six month phase we will turn off the relief and ratchet up the pressure. well secretary kerry also expanded on these points on what ron has agreed to and. there were quite a few details in these in this agreement but as we understand that iran has agreed to halting rigid uranium for more than five percent iran also agreed to do more

intensified inspections of its nuclear facilities. atomic u.n. you clearly watched the the i just released a report in fact saying in the last three months iran has not expanded to its nuclear facilities it also said their line has also not begun operating any new generation centrifuges and it said that no major components had been installed at a reactor being built at all rock and we know that this is one of the concerns. that the negotiators were addressing in this in this agreement but. so no new centrifuges no enrichment for more than five percent. number of details that secretary kerry has mentioned and also on the key point of iran's right to develop a new nuclear program. there were there was some vagueness actually in how

secretary kerry and how president obama addressed as secretary kerry said iran's peaceful nuclear program is subject to negotiations where president obama said iran has the right to have access to peaceful nuclear energy but at the same time given the violations as he said. by iran in the past its capacity to expand its nuclear program should be limited now on the part of iran to actually scaling back it has already done that according to this one. pored released by the . scaling back its nuclear program this could be perceived as a confidence building step that iran has already taken to move forward with this deal but also now it depends on what confidence building measures the u.s. congress for example is going to take because i think it's no secret that the u.s.

congress has not been in favor of any deals with iran especially considering israel has been very critical of the deal of such a deal and president obama. sort of responded had a message for both for iran and for. the gulf partners saying that only through diplomacy like this and only through negotiations can one achieve a durable settlement on this subject. we're going to thank you so much for bringing us the highlights and the reaction from washington d.c. on the ground breaking deal a story deal reached day in geneva between iran and the six world powers going to reporting from washington d.c. of course here on r.t. will bring you more analysis on this with our guests in correspondence alike but before that let's now take a look at the long and winding road to the store deal while iran's nuclear program started in the nineteen fifties were the help of the u.s. bought it in the late twentieth centuries abstention started really heating up

around its atomic ambitions. back in one thousand nine hundred six the u.s. firmly moved from track of sanctions lambaste into iran after alleging its nuclear program was for military purposes and that's also when talks started but they reached deadlock in two thousand and five and iran's president at the time of mahmoud ahmadinejad resumed enrichment the un to work quick to respond unanimously green on their own set of sanctions a year later now this though failed to convince iran to drop its nuclear program on the contrary in two thousand and ten it increased the level of uranium enrichment to twenty percent and that was widely seen as a significant step towards arms production the move allegedly triggered the assassinations of four iranian nuclear scientists with israel's mossad suspected of involvement and finally in june this year iran elected hassan rouhani as us new president something mattie see as a game changer in iran's relations with the west. well

what seemed like a major obstacle to along the way to deal with israel's staunch opposition to any compromise during a previous round of talks two weeks ago the opposition seem to be impacting all in the negotiation stances of france and the u.s. for more on this now we can go live to our correspondent policy you who is in television or paula so what do you bring us israel's reaction to this i mean it isn't going to be very happy about it. well the israelis certainly are not going to be very happy about this but as of yet there is no official israeli comment however this was seen as a foregone deal the question being asked in israel was not so much if it would go ahead but when it would go ahead in that respect we have seen israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu in recent days stepping up his anti deal rhetoric i mean he's been threatening with war mongering woods just recently he was in the

russian capital where he was trying to urge the russian president vladimir putin perhaps not not to sign off on a deal but try and sign off on a better deal netanyahu has repeatedly called this a bad deal and that is why when you have the u.s. secretary of state john kerry now saying that the deal will make israel safe for many in the israeli capital will scoff at these words because this has been precisely the point that netanyahu has been trying to push home and that is that the deal will not only not make israel safer but it will not make the international community safe there was a comment on saturday when the deal was still being finalized by the israeli minister of strategic affairs and the point that he made was that iran has to understand that it has commitment not to develop and then once it will make an atomic bomb and this is really being the israeli position there's a yahoo repeatedly saying that he doesn't believe in the sincerity of the rand he doesn't believe that it will stick to its commitments in this deal and that the lifting of sanctions will merely give the iranians more.