Those developments triggered “Implementation Day”, which led to the US, the United Nations and the European Union lifting nuclear-related sanctions.
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However, on Sunday, the USA imposed more limited sanctions against a number of companies, including those based in China and United Arab Emirates, and five individuals for supplying Iran with material and funds for its ballistic missile program, which the US claims could be useful in helping Iran deliver a nuclear weapon.
The head of Iran’s central bank says it has successfully transferred some of its formerly frozen assets in order to ensure that financial sanctions have been fully lifted in accordance with a historic nuclear deal.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry also said that the country would not negotiate with the USA on other issues, while sanctions introduced by the Washington, which Iran called “propaganda measures”, would be met with a firm response.
Tehran has said it will carry on with the missile program despite the new USA sanctions.
The accord, known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, would provide sanctions relief for Iran in exchange for limits on its controversial nuclear programme.
On Monday, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano arrived in Tehran for talks with President Hassan Rouhani.
Under July’s deal, Iran’s nuclear activities will be severely constrained and remain under strict oversight for the next decade, but Tehran will then be able to scale up its production of nuclear fuel. President Barack Obama said world powers had cut off every path Tehran had to a nuclear bomb and that a prisoner swap showed what was possible with diplomacy. The first two being the implementation of the nuclear deal and the freeing of the Americans imprisoned in Iran, including Washington Post reporter correspondent Jason Rezaian, and the third was the settlement of a years-long lawsuit between Iran and the US.
Ten U.S. sailors, who were aboard two patrol craft, were detained for 15 hours by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on January 12 when they inadvertently entered Iranian territorial waters.
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The incident is a huge turnaround from just a few days earlier, when US-Iran relations seemed to be at a high point. As global oil majors rush to Iran to make use of this, Indian players should also join the race so that they can build refining capacity in Iran. “We could advance by engaging directly with the Iranian government”, Obama said in a statement from the White House.
