Iran hails 'first step' towards new relationship with west

Iran has heralded a "historic" nuclear deal as just the "first step" towards a new, less hostile relationship with the west as cheering crowds thronged the streets of Tehran and opponents scrambled to respond to the country's most promising thaw with the US since the 1979 hostage crisis.

President Hassan Rouhani signalled that the draft agreement between Iran and six world powers - the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - would go beyond the nuclear issue, saying he hoped to see "the end of tensions" with hostile countries, in a clear reference to the US.

Draft terms brokered through 18 months of painstaking diplomacy - and eight days of marathon talks in Lausanne - potentially pave the way for Iran's return to the international fold, with curbs on its nuclear programme reciprocated by broad sanctions relief.

Both US president Barack Obama and Iran's reformist president Mr Rouhani have staked their personal reputations on the deal and must now shield its precarious terms from ambush by hardliners.

Mr Rouhani sold the nuclear pact as his government's victory, saying on Friday that the "approach of this government bore fruits". "Some [politicians] think we should either fight with the world or surrender. But we believe we can co-operate with the world," he said, in a challenge to his hawkish opponents.

Within minutes of Mr Obama announcing the deal in a press conference shown on Iranian television, sceptics in the US Congress had hit back.

Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, said the panel would start voting on April 14 after the Easter recess on his bill allowing Congress to approve or reject a final Iran deal - legislation that the White House believes could kill the talks.

Bill Galston, a congressional expert at the Brookings Institution, said the Corker bill had about 65 supporters in the Senate, near to the 67 votes needed to override the promised presidential veto.

Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel condemned the framework as a "grave" threat to international security and the very existence of Israel, demanding that Iran recognise Israel's right to exist in any final deal.

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In a sign that the deal may yet win over hardliners in Iran, a conservative cleric in Tehran backed the agreement and thanked the negotiation team. But Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani added that while Iran was committed to the agreement, sanctions had to be "lifted" and not "suspended", highlighting potential ambiguities that could still derail a deal in the months ahead.

Under the terms of the agreement, Iran must shrink its nuclear programme and uranium stockpile, as well as open up sensitive sites to inspections before economic and financial sanctions can be lifted.

The prospect of the Opec member restoring oil production and exports in the wake of any sanctions being lifted - leading to Iranian crude exports flooding an oversupplied market - sent the price of internationally traded Brent crude lower by 3.8 per cent to $54.95 a barrel.

Laurent Fabius, France's foreign minister, hinted at some of the differences over how to monitor implementation and punish non-compliance in comments that were notably cool on the still incomplete deal.

"Iranians want to lift the sanctions immediately. We're telling them, we have to lift them gradually when you fulfil your commitments and if you've not, then naturally we would go back to the previous situation," he said. "There isn't an agreement on this yet."

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