Brett McGurk, a special US presidential envoy tweeted a photo of Jason Rezaian after the American journalist landed in Geneva following his release by Iran. The deal also freed four American held in Iranian custody.
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Washington Post editors flew to Germany to meet with Rezaian 39 who appeared in a photograph on the newspaper’s website wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and jeans and said he was feeling fine. He and three other Americans of Iranian descent were released Saturday in exchange for USA prosecutors pardoning or dropping cases against 21 Iranians.
The prisoner exchange punctuated a Cold War-esque day of drama as the Iranian nuclear deal with the West kicked in and economic sanctions lifted.
On Sunday, President Barack Obama announced sanctions on 11 individuals over Iran’s ballistic missile testing in October and pledged to counter Iran’s “destabilizing behavior” across the Mideast.
“Jason expressed hope that he can see us both in person tomorrow, and he looks forward to seeing everyone at The Post very soon”, the newspaper said, quoting Rezaian as saying: “I hear there’s going to be a big party”.
The U.N nuclear agency certified that Iran has met its obligations required under a deal struck last summer.
It also reminded us of the power of a rogue regime to seize hostages on trumped up charges and use them as pawns.
“Unfortunately, the United States government revealed its chronic addiction to unilateralism and ineffective sanctions by adding several companies to its previous lists (of embargoes) in order to hide having had no choice but bow to the will of the Iranian people and accede to (the country’s) peaceful nuclear program…”, the statement read.
The United States and the European Union finally lifted their nuclear-related sanctions on Iran.
On Monday, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano arrived in Tehran for talks with President Hassan Rouhani. “Yesterday marked a milestone in preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon”.
Presenting the draft budget for the next Iranian fiscal year, which begins in March, Rouhani told parliament the deal was a “turning point” for the economy of Iran, a major oil producer which has been virtually shut out of worldwide markets for the past five years. “Full cooperation from Iran is also needed”, he said.
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“Israel’s policy has been and will remain exactly what it has been: not to allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons”.
