United Nations experts said in a report in December that the missile test in October violated sanctions banning Iran from launches capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
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“The Iranian government has implemented its pledges pertaining to economic promises and is committed to do so”, Rouhani said, vowing to raise the GDP from the current three percent to five percent in the next year.
In a statement released earlier this weekend NIAC President Trita Parsi said the prisoner exchange was long overdue. “When this happened, we were anxious (the prisoner exchange) wouldn’t get done and we wouldn’t get the Americans back, but Secretary Kerry and Foreign Minister Zarif, who have a good relationship, quickly began talking and both agreed that the sailors could pose a distraction that could jeopardize the deal and so they got it cleared up very quickly”.
But Mr Obama said he decided that “a strong, confident America could advance our national security by engaging directly with the Iranian government”.
Democratic lawmakers who supported the agreement applauded the sanctions announced Sunday. I n a joint letter to Mr Obama, f ive senators said failure to impose the restrictions could encourage Tehran to breach global obligations with impunity.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Iran prisoner swap: How 14 months of secret diplomacy ended in a deal”. Levinson, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and Central Intelligence Agency contractor, went missing in Iran in 2007.
But critics question Iran’s reliability and slammed Obama’s willingness to negotiate a prisoner trade on Saturday that saw six Iranian-Americans and one Iranian serving sentences or awaiting trial being granted clemency in what he called a “one-time gesture to Iran”. He emphasized that they were not charged with terrorism or any violent offenses.
The implementation of the deal would also release about $100 billion of Iran’s assets and make it easier for India and other countries to do business with Tehran.
The White House said its lawyers assessed that the USA could have faced a “significantly higher judgment” if the case continued.
USA officials, however, said this does not set a precedent.
Over multiple presidential administrations and through the Cold War, “the United States has never been afraid to pursue diplomacy with our adversaries”, Obama said.
The officials said they know Iran is not going to dramatically change its actions in the next year or two. The names of the Iranians have not yet been released, the officials said, adding that the four Americans had not left Iran as of late Saturday morning.
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Obama administration officials made a decision to delay the sanctions announcement until after the deal was completed, the sources said.
