Reports quoted insiders as saying that negotiations in December over the prisoner exchange delayed the imposition of the latest sanctions on Iran.
Advertisement
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, a senior administration official said the United States “did not want to complicate what was a very sensitive and delicate effort to bring Americans home” by imposing the sanctions.
While the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani promised a “suitable response” to the new sanctions, President Obama stressed that Washington would remain firm in the face of Iranian threats to the countries of the region.
The president described the release of six Iranian-Americans and one Iranian charged in the United States as a “reciprocal, humanitarian gesture” that was a one-time event.
Under the nuclear deal signed between the world powers and Iran, Tehran will “not get its hands on a nuclear programme”, Obama said.
No names were immediately released in a statement from the judiciary outlining the decision, but among Iranian-American citizens in custody is Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent.
A spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Hossein Jaber Ansari, said “Iran’s missile program has never been created to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons”, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency.
“Iran’s recovery was fixed at a reasonable rate of interest and therefore Iran is unable to pursue a bigger tribunal award against us, preventing USA taxpayers from being obligated to a larger amount of money”, he added.
Obama also credited the improved relations between the two countries with the release of USA sailors who strayed into Iranian waters in “less than 24 hours”.
The decision came just a day after Washington had lifted a series of painful economic penalties as part of an worldwide deal struck last summer in which Iran promised to roll back its nuclear program.
“We’re not going to waver in the defense of our security or that of our allies and partners”, Obama said yesterday while announcing sanctions against 11 individuals and entities as a result of an Iranian ballistic missile launch in October.
Advertisement
Obama, in his statement, also referred to Iran’s meddling in countries like Syria and Yemen.
