Iran would manage to decrease tensions with the West “gradually” after the worldwide deal on Tehran’s nuclear program started to be implemented and Western sanctions were removed, an Iranian expert said.
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Brent and US crude futures fell to the lowest since 2003 in Asian trading on Monday as the market braced for a jump in Iranian oil exports following the lifting of the sanctions at the weekend. Iranian assets held in the worldwide financial system, estimated to be worth between $50 billion and $150 billion, have now been released as a result of Obama’s order.
The U.S. also alleges that Tehran sent technicians to North Korea over the past two years to jointly work with its defense industries on the development of an 80-ton rocket booster.
Obama also said that the USA remains steadfast against Iran’s threats to Israel and others in the region, for example by enforcing new sanctions against Iran’s ballistic program.
On Sunday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it was imposing sanctions on 11 people and companies involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program.
The UN’s atomic watchdog said Amano would meet with President Hassan Rouhani and Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, to discuss monitoring and verifying Iran’s commitments under the agreement. A fifth American who had been detained in Iran already left the country.
“And we are going to remain vigilant about it. We’re not going to waver in the defense of our security or that of our allies and partners”, Obama said in a televised statement on Sunday morning from the White House.
In Washington, President Barack Obama said the breakthrough was vindication of his contentious policy of engagement.
“This is a good day because once again we are seeing what’s possible through strong American diplomacy”, Obama said at the White House, adding that Iran would not “get its hands” on a nuclear weapon.
Speaking at a Liberal government cabinet retreat in New Brunswick, Mr. Dion said Ottawa must decide in a “timely fashion” so that Canadian companies hoping to do business with Iran are not disadvantaged.
Fourteen months ago, President Obama authorized a top-secret, second diplomatic channel with Tehran to negotiate freedom for Americans who had disappeared or been imprisoned in Iran…. The U.S. has only removed secondary sanctions that restrict the dealings of other countries with Iran.
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Kerry said the United States would repay Iran a $400 million debt and $1.3 billion in interest dating to the Islamic revolution. “It’s his free determination” whether he wants to stay in Iran, an official said, according to CNN.
