After the prisoners were freed, it was announced that the United States and Iran settled a long-standing claim, releasing to Tehran $400 million in funds frozen since 1981 plus $1.3 billion in interest, the State Department said.
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But Kerry said the successful talks over prisoners and nuclear matters raise the prospects of more U.S.-Iranian cooperation on other matters.
Hekmati, who has been held in an Iranian prison for more than four years on what his family and American officials maintained was a false charge of espionage, flew out of Iran on Sunday, headed to Germany on a Swiss aircraft, according to officials.
Within hours of the release of the Americans, the US imposed sanctions against those involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program as a result of Tehran’s firing of a medium-range ballistic missile.
Relieved families are rejoicing after the USA citizens freed by Iran as part of a prisoner swap this weekend are on their way back home.
“These things are a reminder of what we can achieve when we lead with strengthand with wisdom”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israeli would monitor the Iranian nuclear deal closely to ensure that Iran was not violating its commitments.
The lifting of sanctions and the prisoner deal considerably reduced the hostility between Tehran and Washington that had shaped the Middle East since Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979.
After a stop in Switzerland Sunday, Rezaian and two others, Marine veteran Amir Hekmati and pastor Saeed Abedini, arrived in Germany, where they are undergoing medical checkups.
The fourth, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, opted to remain in Iran, officials said.
Secretary of State John Kerry said USA officials hashed out the prisoner exchange over 11 or 12 meetings with the Iranians.
He said Iranian authorities grilled him about fellow journalists who cover the country.
Kildee said the three men would return to the United States “as soon as possible”.
Saboonchi had been convicted of unlawfully exporting goods to Iran in violation of global sanctions and was serving a 2-year sentence.
Iranian President Hasan Rouhani has presented parliament with a draft budget that would reduce the government’s reliance on oil revenues.
“The Iranians, as they have done all along, continued to manipulate them, continued to try to mess with them, and prevented Yegi from leaving for some period of time”, Ali Rezaian said.
Hossein Jaber Ansari, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, said in response that Iran’s missile programme had never been created to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons and was legal.
“Tonnes of uranium have been shipped out of Iran, thousands of centrifuges have been taken out of use and the core has been removed from the Arak reactor”.
The International Atomic Energy Agency certified that Iran had fulfilled its obligations under the nuclear deal that six world powers struck with Tehran.
The chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), issued a statement calling the related nuclear deal with Iran “little more than a negotiation with terrorists”.
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He described the negotiations as hard, especially as the Iranians made what he said were unacceptable demands.
