Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Sunday, “Iran will now have more resources to dedicate to their terrorism and aggression in the region and in the world”. Iran insists the missile was created to carry a conventional payload.
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The two countries had prolonged negotiations for the exchange as they also crafted an agreement announced last summer to restrict Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.
“Today is a good day”, Obama said in a White House speech on Sunday.
“The US sanctions against Iran’s ballistic missile program… have no legal or moral legitimacy”, he said.
Republican candidates for the USA presidency have criticized the deal, and some Iranian officials fear Washington could walk away from the deal when President Barack Obama leaves office in early 2017. “We need to activate the private sector and involve it in investment to achieve economic growth”, Rouhani said. If Iran refuses, it faces the possibility of United Nations sanctions being reimposed.
He said differences with Iran remained, and the USA would “remain steadfast in opposing Iran’s destabilising behaviour elsewhere” – such as its missile tests.
Mr Rouhani pledged that the lifting of sanctions will give a major boost to Iran’s economy in 2016.
The president described the release of six Iranian-Americans and one Iranian charged in the United States as a “reciprocal, humanitarian gesture” that was a one-time event. The delay in application came after the administration caved to extensive pressure from the Iranian government, according to US and congressional officials speaking to The Wall Street Journal.
The organization tasked with inspecting and monitoring Iran’s nuclear stockpiles and sites formally certified Saturday that Tehran had fulfilled the commitments of the nuclear deal brokered a year ago and dismantled most of its nuclear program.
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Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati and pastor Saeed Abedini were flown from Iran to Switzerland then brought to a U.S. military hospital in Germany, for medical treatment. Under the deal, Iran committed to reduce its operating centrifuges enriching uranium by two-thirds.
