Kerry said he raised the issue with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in Vienna during final talks on Iran’s compliance under the nuclear deal, a step that was necessary for the lifting of United States and other sanctions against Tehran.
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Yukiya Amano met January 18 with the Head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi, IRNA news agency reported. Rouhani said Sunday that the official implementation of the landmark deal reached between Tehran and six world powers has satisfied all parties except radical extremists.
“We’ve achieved this through diplomacy without resorting to another war in the Middle East”, Obama said. However, hours after the release of Americans, the Obama administration also announced new sanctions on Sunday on individuals and 11 entities involved in Tehran’s ballistic missile programme.
The White House had threatened to impose the measures last month but withdrew them after Rouhani hit out at both their timing and intent.
While tensions remain between the USA and Iran, Nekumanesh says most of the Iranian people are ready to embrace America “I don’t know about the Iranian government, but the Iranian people they love the United States”, Nekumanesh said.
The other two were understood to be Saeed Abedini, a Christian pastor, and former US Marine Amir Hekmati. Kerry said the United States made clear it wouldn’t release an accused murderer or narcotics offender.
Upon arrival, the freed prisoners would then leave for an American base in Germany, it said in a statement. The plane has not taken off for unexplained reasons, according to The Washington Post. But it expressed hope Iran would soon release Robert Levinson, an American held captive for almost nine years and whose fate remains unknown. For example, Most non-American companies will now be able to do business with Iran’s energy sector.
Obama’s critics have pilloried the nuclear deal, casting it as a capitulation to Iran’s ruling clerics and evidence of the president’s weakness on the world stage. Official Iranian reports have set the total amount of frozen Iranian assets overseas at $100 billion.
A strong supporter of the agreement, Rouhani sent out a celebratory tweet calling it a “glorious victory” late Saturday night while the speeches in Vienna were still taking place.
It drew a line under a standoff dating back to 2002 marked by failed diplomatic initiatives, ever-tighter sanctions, defiant nuclear expansion by Iran and threats of military action. It said Iran must be held to the commitments it agreed to under the nuclear accord and that its support for militant groups and arming of regional proxies must be confronted.
The restrictions aim to increase the time Iran would need to make enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon from several months to a year.
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Iran has always denied wanting nuclear weapons, saying its activities are exclusively for peaceful purposes.
