The family of an Iranian American reporter who spent more than a year behind bars is thanking US lawmakers and the journalism community for assisting in the chain of events which lead to his release.
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An Iranian woman walks past a Bank Pasargad in the capital Tehran on January 19, 2016.
Hopes for a broader rapprochement between the two countries were dashed on Sunday when Washington slapped new sanctions on companies accused of supporting Iran’s ballistic missile program, drawing an angry response from Iranian officials.
“The EU has confirmed that the legal framework providing for the lifting of its nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions is effective”.
While hailing the release of the just-completed Iran nuclear deal and the release of five Americans held captive by Iran, the President said he will continue to apply pressure on the Iranian regime.
“We don’t trust them”. “We’ve achieved this historic progress through diplomacy without resorting to another war in the Middle East”, the president said in a rare Sunday public statement.
“Musavi has worked directly with North Korean officials in Iran from the U.N.- and U.S.-designated Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation”, the Treasury said in a statement.
In his first public remarks since global sanctions were lifted following a United Nations report that Iran had fully complied in scaling back its nuclear program, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran should “exercise care the other party implements its commitments”.
Iran’s foreign ministry on Monday decried the new measures as “illegitimate”, with spokesperson Hossein Jaber Ansari insisting the missile programme has no links with the nuclear issue.
Obama said confidently on Sunday that “this is a good day” following the nuclear agreement he struck with Iran that will return five American prisoners to the United States. A fifth American, Matthew Trevithick, a researcher imprisoned for 40 days, was released separately of the swap; his name was also not previously reported.
Aside from this, the U.S.is unfreezing Iranian assets, estimated at between $100-$150 billion, as part of the nuclear deal.
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“They’re civilians, and their release is a one-time gesture to Iran given the unique opportunity offered by this moment and the larger circumstances at play”, he said.
