The deal, facilitated by Switzerland, involved a plan to fly the four from Iran to Switzerland aboard a Swiss aircraft and then on to Germany for medical evaluation.
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But Washington says the issue of Iran’s missile tests is separate from the nuclear accord.
Obama also said that the USA offered clemency to seven Iranians, who had been convicted or are pending trial in the U.S.
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.
“We still have sanctions on Iran for its violations of human rights, for its support of terrorism, and for its ballistic missile program”, President Obama said Sunday.
“This is a good day because once again we are seeing what’s possible through strong American diplomacy”, Mr Obama said at the White House.
Senator Marco Rubio accused the Obama administration of not pushing hard enough for the American prisoners’ release when the United States negotiated a deal with Iran past year.
Talking to the people of Iran, Obama said, “For decades your government’s threats and actions to destabilise the region has isolated Iran from much of the world”.
Mr Rouhani, a moderate whose 2013 election victory helped launch the huge diplomatic effort toward the deal, has promised that the lifting of sanctions will give a major boost to Iran’s economy.
“That’s 21 terrorists helping Iran develop nuclear weapons that they intend to use to try to murder us”, he said.
S anctions against Iran’s nuclear programme were officially lifted on Saturday after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) determined that Iran had fulfilled its obligations under an agreement reached in July 2015.
“We talked about future cooperation, especially in the new atmosphere, and we partially drew the road map” for continued efforts, Mr Salehi said after the talks.
Jason Rezaian was released over the weekend from an Iranian jail where he had been held for suspicion of espionage since the summer of 2014.
Iran’s response to the latest sanctions comes one day after four USA citizens were freed from an Iranian jail in a prisoner swap deal between the two countries.
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Those three prisoners – The Washington Post’s Iranian bureau chief Jason Rezaian, former US Marine Amir Hekmati and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini – were well known to the US media and public.
