IRAN and six major world powers reached a nuclear deal yesterday, capping more than a decade of negotiations with an agreement that could transform the Middle East.

    Under the deal, sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union and United Nations will be lifted in return for Iran agreeing long-term curbs on a nuclear program that the West has suspected was aimed at creating a nuclear bomb.

    The agreement is a major political victory for both U.S. President Barack Obama and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, who was elected two years ago on a vow to reduce the diplomatic isolation of a country of 77 million people.

    “The deal shows constructive engagement works,” Rouhani tweeted. “With this unnecessary crisis resolved, new horizons emerge with a focus on shared challenges.”

    For Obama, the diplomacy with Iran, begun in secret more than two years ago, ranks alongside his normalization of ties with Cuba as landmarks in a legacy of reaching out to enemies that tormented his predecessors for decades.

    While the main negotiations were between the United States and Iran, the four other U.N. Security Council permanent members, Britain, China, France and Russia, are also parties to the deal, as is Germany.

    The final round of talks in Vienna involved nearly three weeks of intense negotiation between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

    It was something that would until recently have been unthinkable for two countries that have been bitter enemies since 1979, when Iranian revolutionaries stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

    Obama first reached out to Iranians with an address in 2008, only weeks into his presidency, offering a “new beginning.”

    Iran has long denied it is seeking a nuclear weapon and has insisted on the right to nuclear technology for peaceful means, although Western powers feared the enriched uranium that it was stockpiling could be used to make a bomb. Obama never ruled out using military force if negotiations failed.

    Iran’s IRNA news agency said billions of dollars in frozen funds would be released under the deal, and sanctions on its central bank, national oil company, shipping and airlines would now be lifted. According to a text of the agreement published by the Russian Foreign Ministry, Iran will retain the right to conduct research into enriching uranium for 10 years, without stockpiling it.

    Western diplomats said Iran had accepted a “snapback” mechanism, under which some sanctions could be reinstated in 65 days if it violated the deal. A U.N. weapons embargo is to remain in place for five years and a ban on buying missile technology will remain for eight years.

    Alongside the deal, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, announced an agreement with Iran on a road map to resolve its own outstanding issues with Tehran by the end of this year.(SD-Agencies)