[Wolf Blitzer, Cnn Anchor:] RELIABLE SOURCES with guest host Eric Deggans of NPR will begin shortly and for our international viewers, "GLOBAL EXCHANGE" is coming up with breaking news out of Iran. But, first, we want to bring you the latest that we have here. The United States and five other world powers have reached a diplomatic breakthrough with Iran sealing a deal to slow Iran's nuclear program. Iran wins an easing of sanctions in exchange for limitations on its nuclear activities. President Obama strongly welcomed the deal.
[Barack Obama, President Of The United States:] Substantial limitations, which will help prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon. Simply put, they cut off Iran's most likely paths to a bomb.
[Blitzer:] Tehran is celebrating but there are warnings from congressional critics and from Israel's prime minister who says the deal makes the world in his words much more dangerous. The Secretary of State John Kerry tells CNN the deal should make Israel safer.
[John Kerry, Secretary Of State:] We believe very strongly that because the Iranian nuclear program is actually set backwards and is actually locked into place in critical places, that that is better for Israel than if you were just continuing to go down the road and they rush towards a nuclear weapon.
[Blitzer:] We have full coverage including reaction from around the world. CNN's Reza Sayah standing by in Iran's capital of Tehran. Ian Lee is in Jerusalem. Let's go to our chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto. He's in Geneva. He's been covering these negotiations. And, Jim, let's look ahead briefly. What's next as far as this deal is concerned?
[Jim Sciutto, Cnn Chief National Security Correspondent:] Well, this is an interim deal. Just lasts six months. In effect they hit pause on Iran's nuclear program on some of it and some on the sanction regime and they'll get into the harder process of talking about deleting some of these programs. For instance, when you talk about centrifuges, Iran has agreed here not to add any new ones or bring them online. Are they going to dismantle some of them going forward? The Arak heavy water reactor, a second path to nuclear weapon, a plutonium facility, are they going to convert that facility into something more peaceful? In this agreement, they've just agreed to stop building it, stop upgrading it. So, the next stage of these talks are arguably more difficult because they are talking about long-term but certainly a tremendous agreement today because I think if you and I were talking a few weeks ago, a couple months ago, we couldn't have predicted an agreement with this severe restrictions on both sides.
[Blitzer:] They didn't really wrap it up in Geneva until around, what, 3:00 a.m. Geneva time. They worked for days on this and well into the night. The secretary of state obviously very pleased, but the critical reaction coming in from some in Washington, members of Congress, not only Republicans but some Democrats, critical reaction from Israel, from some of the from the Saudis, for example. How are they dealing with that?
[Sciutto:] Well, that's going to be a problem going forward. It just seems that this administration, U.S. administration, has accepted it. That they're going to disagree with two of their arguably closest allies in the region, Saudi Arabia and Israel, who both have been lobbying against this deal leading up to it. And now, as you saw today, Netanyahu saying the world is a more dangerous place today than it was, whereas Kerry says the exact opposite, that it's safer. You know, U.S. officials keep going back to the talking point that this is just a tactical disagreement with Israel but it's a fundamental tactical disagreement here because in effect, the U.S. is saying we can make a deal with Iran. We can if it's verifiable trust Iran and Iranians and the Saudis are saying the opposite. You can't trust them. That's a very serious disagreement. You don't see how they reconcile that going forward, so you know administration going through this next phase, longer term phase, is going to face similar, arguably, harder opposition.
[Blitzer:] Real source of tension right now between the United States and Israel, the Obama administration and government of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Jim Sciutto in Geneva, thanks very much. Let's go to Tehran right now. Reza Sayah has been getting reaction from folks on the street and others inside Iran. I take it, Reza, they are happy about this easing of international sanctions?
[Reza Sayah, Cnn International C Orrespondent:] They are. They know it's an interim deal. They're not quite sure what the long-term implications are. But the overwhelming reaction here is a positive one. Many Iranians are happy that Iran sat across from the world powers and managed to hammer out a deal. For many Iranians, this was a roller coaster of emotions, three rounds of talks. At about 5:30 a.m. this morning word came that an agreement had been reached. The big sanctions that are really impacting the lives of Iranians here are the ones on oil exports, banking restrictions, they are still in place. Iranians believe this is a positive step, a golden opportunity to get to those sanctions and to get to a place where those sanctions are going to be lifted. And if that happens, you can look at it in a number of ways of who the winners are. But, certainly, the Iranian people could be the biggest winners. Remember, this is a very young, educated population who suffered through years of economic isolation, these crippling sanctions. They voted in Hassan Rouhani, Iran's new president, back in June. They gave him mandate to take office and improve the economy, and best way to improve the economy, obviously, was to ease some of these sanctions and they believe this is the first step in doing that Wolf.
[Blitzer:] It's interesting, Reza. As you and I are speaking, the White House just released the official text of the document, the U.S.Iranian agreement. It's called a joint plan of action. Let me read the first two or three sentences, Reza. I'm going to get your reaction. "The goal of these negotiations is to reach a mutually agreed long-term comprehensive solution that would ensure Iran's nuclear program will be exclusively peaceful. Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek or develop any nuclear weapons. This comprehensive solution would build on these initial measures and result in a final step for a period to be agreed upon and resolution of concerns." Reza, that's pretty specific. Iran, according to this agreement signed in Geneva, it says it will never develop a nuclear weapon and as you know Iranians have always maintained their nuclear program is designed for peaceful purposes, but now they stipulate that directly in this agreement. How is the reaction going to be over there?
[Sayah:] Well, for Iran, this is not a new position for them. That's what they'll tell you. They'll tell you that repeatedly they have said they're not building a bomb. They'll tell you that no unbiased objective, credible organization or government has ever made public any evidence that they are actually making a bomb. Not even the IAEA. So, this is an agreement they are happy with, and they believe there are steps that Western powers can take to verify that they're not making a bomb. And what's been fascinating to observe over the last several hours is how politician leaders on both sides have cranked up their PR machine and spun this agreement in a way to make themselves look like the winner. And that's no surprise because there's so much at stake for Iran politically, domestically, and, of course, Washington and western powers, internationally and domestically as well, Wolf.
[Blitzer:] And the Iranians know if they don't live up to this agreement, the text is right here. The U.S. and other international powers can ramp up those sanctions once again making life very, very miserable for the Iranians. All right. Reza, thanks very much. Let's go to Jerusalem right now. CNN's Ian Lee is standing by. The prime minister of Israel says this deal is bad and makes the situation even more dangerous. Though interesting, Ian, the president of Israel, Shimon Peres, was much more conciliatory, seemingly much more open to this agreement. There seems to be a little bit of a split there. Is that what you're getting?
[Ian Lee, Cnn International Correspondent:] Well, it's definitely what it appears, wolf. The president elderly statesman, someone widely respected in Israel said the success or failure of the deal will be judged by results and not by words and he said, I would like to say to the Iranian people you are not our enemy and we are not yours. There's a possibility to solve this diplomatically. It is in your hands to reject terrorism to stop the nuclear program and stop development of long range missiles. They prefer diplomatic solutions and that's a lot softer approach than we heard from other officials in the Israeli government that came out strong, especially the prime minister who said that this is an historic mistake. And when you talk with officials in the Israeli government, they have a few things set out that they believe would have been better and that would have been the dismantling of the centrifuges, that all the enriched uranium be taken out of Iran. And, finally for that heavy water plant in Iraq, to be dismantled as well. This would have been a deal that they would have liked to have seen. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said that it's either all or nothing in his eyes, that either Iran gives up their nuclear program and gets relief of sanctions or the sanctions continue, Wolf.
[Blitzer:] Ian Lee in Jerusalem, Reza Sayah in Tehran, Jim Sciutto in Geneva. Guys, thanks very much. We're going to be following the breaking developments involved in this historic international nuclear deal with Iran throughout the day here on CNN. RELIABLE SOURCES will begin right after the break for our domestic viewers. The fallout from the controversial comments made by the MSNBC anchor Martin Bashir, that will be a focus of RELIABLE SOURCES. For our international viewers, "GLOBAL EXCHANGE" coming up next with much more on Iran.