The 34-year Wall of Mistrust between the US and Iran started tumbling down on Sunday at 3 am local time in Geneva. Or has it?

It is, after all, only a mutually acknowledged "first step" - a deal to start negotiating a real deal (see the full text here ) And the terms, for Iran, are harsh.

Iran will be allowed to trade again in gold, petrochemicals, car and plane parts, and will have some US$4.2 billion in oil sales unfrozen. Yet a fortune remains in permafrost - including $10 billion in European banks. And there is still $50 billion with Iran's Asian energy clients - China, India, Japan, South Korea, Turkey - that still cannot be repatriated.

Over the next six months Iran must; stop enriching uranium above 5%; dilute its stock of 20%-enriched uranium; install no more centrifuges; refrain from fueling the heavy-water reactor in Arak; and accept a lot more International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections (which have unearthed no evidence whatsoever uranium has been diverted to weaponization).

It marks a victory for the Shia in their growing conflict with the Sunni Muslim Middle East. It gives substantial hope to Bashar al-Assad that he will be left in power in Syria. It isolates Israel.

And it infuriates Saudi Arabia and Qatar and Kuwait and other Sunni Gulf States which secretly hoped that a breakdown of the Geneva nuclear talks would humiliate Shia Iran and support their efforts to depose Assad, Iran's only ally in the Arab world.

In the cruel politics of the Middle East, the partial nuclear agreement between Iran and the world's six most important powers proves that the West will not go to war with Iran and has no intention - far into the future - of undertaking military action in the region.

We already guessed that when - after branding Assad as yet another Middle Eastern Hitler - the US, Britain and France declined to assault Syria and bring down the regime.

American and British people - those who had to pay the price for these monumental adventures, because political leaders no longer lead their men into battle - had no stomach for another Iraq or another Afghanistan.

Rights groups and lawyers say legislation requiring permission to gather will make legal demonstrations almost impossible.

Egypt's interim president, Adly Mansour, has enacted a new protest law that rights groups say will severely curtail freedom of assembly, and could prohibit the kinds of mass demonstrations that forced presidents Hosni Mubarak and Mohamed Morsi from power.

The law will force would-be protesters to seek seven separate permissions to take to the streets, and bans overnight sit-ins such as the Tahrir Square protests of early 2011. Activists will have to go to court to appeal against any rejected applications - a restriction lawyers argue will render legal demonstration almost impossible.

Gray and solemn pronouncements about Israel acting "by itself" were issued by the Israeli prime minister at his Cabinet meeting today and mark Israel's sudden isolation from world opinion - and signal division inside the Israel lobby in the U.S.

Netanyahu doesn't look to have slept well. A historic mistake, not a historic agreement, he says. "The most dangerous regime in the world has taken a significant step toward attaining the most dangerous weapon in the world."

There is no effort to seize the moment. "Israel is not bound by this agreement. The Iranian regime is committed to the destruction of Israel."

Iran and six major powers agreed early Sunday in Geneva on a historic deal that freezes key parts of Iran's nuclear program in exchange for temporary relief on some economic sanctions.

The agreement, sealed at a signing ceremony in Geneva's Palace of Nations, requires Iran to halt or scale back parts of its nuclear infrastructure, the first such pause in more than a decade.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hailed the deal, which was reached after four days of hard bargaining, including an eleventh-hour intervention by US Secretary of State John Kerry and foreign ministers from Europe, Russia and China.

"It is important that we all of us see the opportunity to end an unnecessary crisis and open new horizons based on respect, based on the rights of the Iranian people and removing any doubts about the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program," Zarif told reporters.

The American intelligence service - NSA - infected more than 50,000 computer networks worldwide with malicious software designed to steal sensitive information. Documents provided by former NSA-employee Edward Snowden and seen by this newspaper, prove this.

A management presentation dating from 2012 explains how the NSA collects information worldwide. In addition, the presentation shows that the intelligence service uses 'Computer Network Exploitation' (CNE) in more than 50,000 locations. CNE is the secret infiltration of computer systems achieved by installing malware, malicious software.

One example of this type of hacking was discovered in September 2013 at the Belgium telecom provider Belgacom. For a number of years the British intelligence service - GCHQ - has been installing this malicious software in the Belgacom network in order to tap their customers' telephone and data traffic. The Belgacom network was infiltrated by GCHQ through a process of luring employees to a false Linkedin page.

NSA special department employs more than a thousand hackers.

Video: President Obama says the U.S. has agreed to provide Iran with "modest relief" from sanctions as part of a deal on the country's nuclear program

Geneva - Iran and six major powers agreed early Sunday on a historic deal that freezes key parts of Iran's nuclear program in exchange for temporary relief on some economic sanctions.

The agreement, sealed at a 3 a.m. signing ceremony in Geneva's Palace of Nations, requires Iran to halt or scale back parts of its nuclear infrastructure, the first such pause in more than a decade.

A shocking story that is all too indicative of the nature of political, corporate and religious "leadership" in our decrepit modern society.

The P5+1 world powers and Iran have struck a historic deal on Tehran's nuclear program at talks in Geneva on Sunday. Ministers overcame the last remaining hurdles to reach agreement, despite strong pressure from Israel and lobby groups.

No particular details of the deal have been immediately made public.

Under the agreement Iran will get access to $4.2 billion in exchange for halting its nuclear program, a Western diplomat told Reuters.

The French delegation has also confirmed the deal.

US President Obama is expected to deliver a speech on the historic resolution within the next hour.

The P5+1 and Iran arrived at the historic deal over Iran's nuclear program at approximately 3:00 AM local time in Geneva.

Before the assembly, the foreign ministers reportedly spent some time consulting with their capitals, a diplomatic source in the Russian delegation told Ria.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed on Saturday that "for the first time in many years the six world powers and Iran have a real opportunity to reach agreement."

The tough discussions of the remaining sticking point of nuclear enrichment has stretched into the night, as the world powers were adamant to strike a deal.

According to Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, shortly before midnight, the talks were in "their 11th hour." He said that "98 percent of the draft" had already been agreed and the sides were discussing the remaining 2 percent, which was "very important" to the Iranian side.

During the day Iran once again reiterated it would not accept a deal which did not recognize in one way or another Iran's right to enrich uranium.

"Any agreement without recognizing Iran's right to enrich, practically and verbally, will be unacceptable for Tehran," Araghchi told journalists.

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

Chinese state-run media revealed for the first time this week that Beijing's nuclear submarines can attack American cities as a means to counterbalance U.S. nuclear deterrence in the Pacific.

On Monday, leading media outlets including China Central TV, the People's Daily, the Global Times, the PLA Daily, the China Youth Daily and the Guangmin Daily ran identical, top-headlined reports about the "awesomeness" of the People's Liberation Army navy's strategic submarine force.

"This is the first time in 42 years since the establishment of our navy's strategic submarine force that we reveal on such a large scale the secrets of our first-generation underwater nuclear force," the Global Times said in a lengthy article titled "China for the First Time Possesses Effective Underwater Nuclear Deterrence against the United States."

The article features 30 photos and graphics detailing, among other things, damage projections for Seattle and Los Angeles after being hit by Chinese nuclear warheads and the deadly radiation that would spread all the way to Chicago.

China's sub fleet is reportedly the world's second-largest, with about 70 vessels. About 10 are nuclear-powered, and four or more of those are nuclear ballistic submarines capable of launching missiles.

Heavily influenced by Soviet naval models that stressed underwater forces, China's nuclear submarine development began with the reverse-engineering of a Soviet Golf-class conventional-powered sub in the 1950s.