The new sanctions came after four Iranian-Americans, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, were released in a prisoner swap with the United States. There were no additional details.
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The Americans released by Iran have arrived in Germany, according to a U.S. State Department official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss their status.
On Saturday, Republican candidates to succeed Obama in the White House were quick to question the lifting of sanctions and the release of prisoners, as they had been to demand strong action over the capture of the American sailors. “We have no further information to share at this time and would ask everyone respect the privacy of these individuals and their families”, the official told CNN.
Rezaian’s friends helped keep attention on Jason by posting regularly to social media while he was in prison in Iran, according to CBS Chicago.
Ali Rezaian said in a statement Sunday his family is thankful to The Washington Post, the USA government, and “thousands of journalists and other people who brought awareness to Jason’s plight”.
The five Americans had been detained in separate cases, some as early as 2011.
The report says that Amano’s visit to Tehran is aimed to strengthening the relations between IAEA and Iran.
The settlement comes as the U.S.is unfreezing a much larger pool of Iranian assets, estimated at between $100-$150 billion, as part of the nuclear deal.
They had all been indicted or imprisoned for sanctions violations, and six of the seven are dual citizens.
In another development Sunday, Obama announced that the US and Iran had settled a long-standing financial dispute over $400 million in Iranian money that dates back more than three decades.
Both the Washington Post and Rezaian denied the accusations. Many foreign companies will remain wary of investing in Iran because of concern that the sanctions could “snap back” if Tehran is later found not to be complying with the nuclear agreement.
He described the negotiations as hard, especially as the Iranians made what he said were unacceptable demands.
But Kerry said the successful talks over prisoners and nuclear matters raise the prospects of more U.S.-Iranian cooperation on other matters. Another American was freed, but did not fly out with the others. The hospital is near the USA military’s Ramstein Air Base. The U.S. needs a negotiating partner not an adversary.
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“Even after the signing of the nuclear agreement, Iran has not abandoned its aspirations to acquire nuclear weapons, and continues to act to destabilise the Middle East and spread terrorism throughout the world while violating its worldwide commitments”, the statement said. Levinson, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and Central Intelligence Agency contractor, went missing in Iran in 2007. Iranian prosecutors had accused him of espionage, charges the Post had dismissed as “absurd”.
