Iranian-American David Cohen knows that the nuclear accord reached Tuesday by Iran and six world powers will not affect him personally. But the lifting of financial sanctions at the heart of the deal could result in drastic changes for his family in Iran. "The people that are going to benefit the most are the people in Iran," Cohen told the Washington Examiner while eating lunch at Kabob Bazaar, a Persian restaurant in Arlington, Va.

Cohen recalls family members living in Iran calling him in tears because they could not find enough food to eat. Cohen says that the economic sanctions imposed on Iran by the West made food and medicine scarce. "People are dying left and right in front of hospitals," he said.

That will change if the embargo is lifted. Cohen believes the government will receive a lot more money, but he wonders how much of it will get to the people.

Cohen said that during the Iranian Revolution of 1979, people believed the ayatollah's government would help them. The revolutionaries appealed to the people through religion and by promising free goods, but that promise fell through. "[The] Iranian people despise the government," Cohen told the Examiner. "They pray to God [many] times a day that the government will change."

Iranian-American Ali Ahmad agrees that the embargo has had a detrimental effect. He believes that stopping goods like medication from entering Iran goes "against any humanitarian principles." He is happy with the agreement, and dismisses the deal's critics as being blinded by politics. "This is a good deal for both sides," Ahmad told the Examiner. "The right wing … is going to pull it as a bad deal, but that's for their own political consumption. This is a far better alternative than what the right wing in this country was advocating."

He says that both sides conceded a lot. "It's not an ideal deal for either side, but that's what a deal is," he said. "Both sides were flexible and they came to a compromise."

Isa Seyran of Turkey, a U.S. ally bordering Iran, is confident that the accord will eliminate Iran's nuclear weapons. "As a neighbor that is so close to Iran, I think it is good that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon," he told the Examiner. "It's a huge deal that should be celebrated."

Most of the Persian Americans I spoke with conveyed cautious optimism about the deal. All except Cohen, who sees turmoil in the Middle East continuing. "If this deal goes through, it is going to be a sweet deal (for Iran). But the Middle East is going to fall apart," he said.

He predicts that Russia and China will try to cash in on free oil, that the Islamic state will continue to make advances in the region and that Israel will attack Iran, starting "World War III."

Emily Leayman is an intern at the Washington Examiner