The BBC reports on Iran’s reactions to new sanctions against its ballistic missile programme and breaks down the sanctions that are now lifted as part of the nuclear deal.
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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.
He said the country will react to the “propagandist and harassing measures by following up on its legal missile program in earnest and further improve the country’s defense capabilities and national security”. Tehran also surprised many observers with the quick release of 10 US sailors detained last week after they inadvertently navigated into Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.
“The agreement to free Americans imprisoned in Iran is a triumph of diplomacy that should be universally commended,”Parsi said”.
Iran had set up a $400 million trust fund for such purchases, which was frozen along with diplomatic relations in 1979.
Describing the accord a unique example in the history of diplomacy, Rouhani said Iran was committed not to pursue nuclear weapons. The penalties were only announced after the plane carrying the four Americans exited Iranian airspace on Sunday.
Some Iranian Americans said the negotiators ignored human rights violations in Iran.
The deal opens the path to new oil, trade and financial opportunities for Iran in exchange for the country continuing to curb development of its nuclear program.
Earlier Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said his country won’t trust a country like the United States “for the sake of a nuclear deal”. Nicholas Burns, a former American diplomat and a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, explains what the prisoner swap and sanctions mean for the U.S.-Iranian relationship going forward.
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Iran drew condemnation from the United States and other Western powers for two ballistic missile tests late a year ago they said violate U.N. Security Council resolutions. While Obama emphasized that the USA continues to have deep concerns about Iran’s destabilizing actions in the Middle East and its threats to Israel, he also opened up the prospect of Tehran working more cooperatively with the rest of the world.
