Putin: Iran deal a breakthrough but first step on long path

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday called the deal reached with world powers on Tehran's nuclear program a breakthrough but warned it was the first step in a long process, as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the agreement would benefit all sides. "A breakthrough step has been made, but only the first on a long and difficult path," Putin said in his first comments on the deal clinched after marathon talks in Geneva. "As the result of talks... we managed to get closer to untying one of the most difficult knots in world politics," the Russian leader said, according to a Kremlin statement. Earlier on Sunday, Lavrov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying: "Nobody lost, everyone ends up winning." Lavrov said the agreement allowed for wider inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), fostered much-needed trust in the Middle East and assuaged fears of nuclear proliferation. "Now it will be very difficult to go around the facts determined by the IAEA. We are convinced that Iran will cooperate with the agency in good faith," he told Russian journalists. In the next six months, negotiations will iron out "the parameters Iran needs for peaceful nuclear activity, notably to produce fuel for nuclear power stations, for research reactors, for reactors that produce isotopes for medical and other humanitarian ends," Lavrov said. He commended the decision to ease Western sanctions in that period. "We didn't recognize these unilateral sanctions, so it is correct to start easing pressure on Iran by removing unilateral sanctions," he said. Lavrov praised Iran's new President Hassan Rouhani for his serious intentions that made the agreement possible. "With the arrival of the new president to power in Iran we have felt that declarations about the desire to resolve this issue have serious foundations," Lavrov said. A dissenting voice however is Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned countries against giving Iran "an unbelievable Christmas present" in an interview aired by Russian Rossiya channel late Saturday. "I don't know why they need (the civilian nuclear program), they have gas and oil coming out of their ears," said Netanyahu, who came for talks with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week. He added in the interview that he is convinced that Iran "will cheat" on any agreement. The Russian foreign ministry in a statement on Sunday said that "common sense prevailed" in the negotiations, and the deal will make the whole region safer. "The agreement... will help overcome the trend of the past years of attempts to solve a series of crisis and conflict situations in the Middle East by force. It will increase safety in the region," the statement said. "Group of 'Six' and Iran did it!" the foreign ministry said in an unusually enthusiastic tweet. "The world did not miss its chance," it said, calling the deal "historic."