Iranians hail nuclear deal as diplomats return in triumph

Crowds of Iranians have hailed a nuclear deal with world powers and cheered as the country's team of negotiators returned in triumph to Tehran on Friday.

The foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and his team were greeted as they left Mehrabad airport, while residents lined the streets, some carrying Iranian flags, to cheer on the team's convoy.

"Viva Zarif! Viva Araghchi!" chanted the crowd at the airport, in reference to the minister and one of the main negotiators, Abbas Araghchi.

In brief remarks at the airport, Zarif praised Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for "his remarkable support for the negotiating team and his guidance" in the talks, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Iran nuclear deal - click here to read the key points

Zarif said work remained to finalise the agreement before a June 30 deadline.

"We are proud because we will never surrender... but in return for the advantages that we gain, we will give things in return so we can move on," he said.

"We have serious goals in the negotiations and eventually, based on what we have achieved so far, we believe we can reach them".

Ali Akbar Salehi, who led the technical negotiations in Lausanne, said the outline agreement was a major step forward.

"We are proud because we will never surrender... Mohammad Javad Zarif, foreign minister

"We will move on," Salehi said on arrival in Tehran. "We are on the launching pad - in international relations, technology, trade and the economy."

World powers and Iranian negotiators on Thursday evening announced they had agreed a "framework" deal to lift sanctions on Iran in return for cuts in nuclear activities. Iran will be allowed to retain some nuclear capacity for industrial and research purposes.

The framework will form the basis of a binding agreement, to be signed on 30 June.

At Friday prayers in Tehran, Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani said: "This framework is great and it is a victory for us as it made the Western world accept Iran's right to pursue nuclear energy and technology."

Iran nuclear deal - the world reacts

The Israeli government denounced the deal as "a step in a very, very dangerous direction".

Spokesman Mark Regev said: "Not only does it leave Iran with an expensive nuclear infrastructure but it fails to shut down even a single Iranian nuclear installation."

Israel's prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu demanded that any final agreement includeed "a clear and unambiguous Iranian recognition of Israel's right to exist".

Netanyahu has repeatedly said Iran is close to building a nulcear weapon, despite evidence to the contrary from his own secret service, Mossad, and its US counterpart the CIA.