Western sanctions are to be lifted in compensation for Iran’s reduction of some nuclear activities.

Iran yesterday, November 24, 2013, agreed to curb some of its nuclear activities in return for about $7 billion (about FCFA 3,387 billion) in sanctions relief after days of intense talks in Geneva, Switzerland with six Western powers, the BBC said.

Iran agreed to give better access to inspectors and halt some of its work on uranium enrichment. Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, said the deal recognised Iran's nuclear "rights," but repeated in a nationwide broadcast that his country would never seek a nuclear weapon. US President, Barack Obama, on the other hand, welcomed the deal, saying it included "substantial limitations which will help prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon."

According to The Washington Post, the agreement, sealed at 3 a.m. at Geneva’s Palace of Nations, requires Iran to halt or scale back parts of its nuclear infrastructure, the first such pause in over a decade. The deal, intended as a first step toward a more comprehensive nuclear pact to be completed in six months, freezes or reverses progress at all of Iran’s major nuclear facilities, according to Western officials.

The deal represents a historic breakthrough in the West’s decade-long nuclear standoff with Iran, and in the 35-year-long diplomatic freeze between Iran and the United States. The deal was struck with astonishing speed given the history of failed negotiations, coming in just the third round of talks over less than two months, NBC News reported. The breakthrough also came less than three months after Iran's new President, Hassan Rouhani, promised to dramatically alter Iran’s relationship with the world.