Optimism In Tehran After Nuclear Deal

"It has been written clearly in the text of this agreement that Iran will continue its enrichment. And therefore I announce to the people of Iran that enrichment will continue in the same way as before," he said in a televised address to the nation.Iran and six world powers clinched a deal on Sunday curbing the Iranian nuclear programme in exchange for initial sanctions relief, signalling the start of a game-changing rapprochement that could ease the risk of a wider Middle East war.

The United States said the deal halted advances in Iran's nuclear programme, including construction of the Arak heavy-water reactor that deeply worries the West as it could yield plutonium, another atomic bomb ingredient, once operational.

By halting Iran's most sensitive enrichment of uranium and stopping other aspects of its nuclear activities from expanding, Sunday's interim accord is designed to buy time for negotiations on a final settlement of the decade-old dispute.

However, Iran will for now retain thousands of centrifuges refining uranium - albeit only to concentrations far below that needed for nuclear weapons - and a stockpile that could potentially be devoted to bomb-making if processed much more.

"During the six months of the agreement, Natanz, Fordow, Arak, Isfahan and Bandar-Abbas will all continue their activities," Rouhani said.

The West has long suspected that Iran has been seeking covertly to develop a nuclear weapons capability. The Islamic Republic, a major oil producer, denies that, saying its nuclear programme is a peaceful quest for an alternative source of electricity to serve a rapidly expanding population.

Downtrodden by sanctions, many Iranians expressed joy at the breakthrough and prospect of economic improvement. Iran's rial currency, decimated earlier this year due to sanctions, jumped more than three percent on news of the deal on Sunday.

"We're very optimistic that with these relations being forged, our lives can go back to how they were before. It's very nice and desirable to have relations with other countries after ten years," saidTehran resident Omid Zafarmand.

Relief from sanctions is to begin in two to three weeks, Iran's Mehr news agency quoted Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying.

It was welcome news for many.

"They [the sanctions] were effective, very effective. Especially during the past few months, we have felt the effects more. They [the sanctions] have to be lifted for us to see how much effect it will have, but I don't know if they will lift them or not," said Tehran resident Alireza Iravani.

Much of the sanctions infrastructure, anchored by a Western embargo on Iranian crude oil and a ban on Iranian use of the international banking system, would remain in place pending a final deal aimed at removing all risk of an Iranian atom bomb.

U.S. President Barack Obama also said that if Iran did not meet its commitments during the six-month period covered by the interim deal, Washington would turn off the tap of sanctions relief and "ratchet up the pressure".

Despite this, Iranians said the interim agreement had brought a new air of optimism to people's lives.

"These meetings make us Iranians proud. The market will be great, it will start moving. Thanks to these meetings, people have been happy over the past couple of days because they are overcoming their problems," said Tehran shopkeeper Mr Parvizi.

Rouhani's attempts to repair diplomatic bridges broken by his bellicose predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his success in winning the backing of Iranian clerical Supreme Leader, AyatollahAli Khamenei reignited negotiations which had dragged on inconclusively, with the two sides talks reciting irreconcilable positions to each other, for 10 years.