Six major world powers led by the United States managed to pull out a historic deal in Geneva, Switzerland Saturday to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Aimed to ease the long-standing complications, the interim nuclear pact between Iran and the U.S., France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia won the critical endorsement of Iranian clerical Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
   The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany agreed to ease out on the choked international sanctions on Iran’s economy if Iran would halt its nuclear ambitions. There will be a six-month preliminary watch period which will decide if this deal is successful or not.  
   President Barack Obama called the interim deal between the six world powers and Iran on the country’s nuclear program an important first step toward a larger agreement on Saturday.
   “For the first time in nearly a decade, we have halted the progress of the Iranian nuclear program, and key parts of the program will be rolled back,” Obama said. “Iran has been committed to halting certain levels of enrichment and neutralizing part of its stockpile.”
   Ben Smith, columnist at buzzfeed.com in an article titled “Obama’s very personal deal with Iran” wrote, Obama has burned many allies in his presidency, and his decision to roll back the threat of strikes by taking the issue has emboldened the regime of Bashar al-Assad and one of its main backers, Russia, who now see him as deeply weak. Friendlier relations with Iran could remake the context of that conflict as well, if doors to cooperation are opened beyond the nuclear issue.
   “Obama has spent his presidency marching towards these doors burning many allies in his wake, from Israel to Saudi Arabia. Other former strategic U.S. interests have been all but ignored, Egypt as it descends into military dictatorship, Ukraine and Georgia as they fall back into Russia’s orbit,” Smith said.
  House Speaker John Boehner said on Sunday, “The interim deal has been and will continue to be met with healthy skepticism and hard questions, not just of the Iranians, but of ourselves and our allies involved in the negotiations.”
   “These are substantial limitations which will help prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon,” Obama said. “Simply put, they cut off Iran’s most likely paths to a bomb.”
   Meanwhile, the U.S.’s major ally Israel called this interim nuclear deal a historic mistake and stated it will only make the world more dangerous.
    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “What was achieved last night in Geneva is not a historic agreement, but a historic mistake. Today, the world has become a much more dangerous place because the most dangerous regime in the world has taken a significant step toward attaining the most dangerous weapon in the world,” he said.
   Laura Secor, columnist at the New Yorker, wrote in an article titled “Talking or Walking” that the Iranian president Rouhani is a pragmatist who came to power in part on the strength of disaffection, both popular and élite, with the confrontational foreign policy of his predecessor.
    “His first priority is relief from the international sanctions, tied to the nuclear issue, on financial transactions and oil exports, which have caused hardship for the Iranian people. But it’s not difficult to imagine that, with Sunni extremism rising, particularly in Iraq and Syria, Rouhani and his team are also making long-term calculations about Iran’s strategic interests,” Secor said.
   These six months will remain critical for Obama’s own image as an anti-war activist and for Iran. The international inspectors will be expected to visit centrifuge assembly and storage facilities, uranium mills and the Arak reactor. If the centrifuges continue to flourish, realists will argue for a stricter measure against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
    However, there are two major takeaways from this deal: Iran is now accessible to billions of dollars after major powers have agreed to provide temporary relief to Iran, and the shrewd win of diplomacy for the U.S. and the Obama Administration.
   Finally, all’s well that ends well. The month of May 2014 will answer the majority of questions posed by skeptics. As of now, this is good news for diplomats around the world.