“We have come a long way since the IAEA first started considering the Iran nuclear issue in 2003″.
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Netanyahu said in a statement on Saturday that “Iran has not relinquished its ambition to obtain nuclear weapons” and pledged to “warn of any violation” of the agreement.
With the International Atomic Energy Agency certifying that Iran has complied with its agreement to scale back its nuclear program, Obama signed an executive order lifting nuclear-related sanctions.
The nuclear accord comes with big risks for Obama, whose most significant foreign policy achievement hinges in part on Iran’s willingness to live up to its obligations under the accord, including an unprecedented inspections program.
The U.S. and European Union sanctions on Tehran’s disputed nuclear program in the past years had cut the country’s financial and economic ties with the worldwide financial system and economic network.
Erdan alleged that Iran continues supplying arms to Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist groups, intervening in Gulf States’ internal affairs and violating UN Security Council decisions about developing ballistic missiles.
Obama said that relationship was essential to freeing American sailors taken captive by Iran last week when USA officials said they accidentally sailed into Iranians waters.
The end of sanctions was also greeted with scorn in the United States by many of President Barack Obama’s Republican opponents, especially the party’s 2016 presidential candidates.
Netanyahu sounded unrepentant on Sunday – even as one Israeli official grudgingly commended the Iranian statecraft and a former senior adviser to the prime minister accused him of having pursued a dangerously failed strategy.
Meanwhile, reports say the two countries freed a number of citizens as part of a prisoner exchange agreement. Iran has always denied the charge that it was seeking to build a nuclear bomb.
Together, the lifting of sanctions and the prisoner deal help to ease the hostility between Tehran and Washington that has shaped the Middle East since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani on Sunday hailed the nuclear deal with world powers, implemented late the previous evening, as a “golden page” in the country’s history, and looked forward to an economic future less dependent on oil.
Obama administration officials made a decision to delay the sanctions announcement until after the deal was completed, the sources said.
Ram Ben-Barak, director-general of Israel’s Intelligence Ministry, predicted Iran would invest in economic recovery in the coming years while remaining able to restart its nuclear drive “overnight”.
Rouhani also said the deal was a win for all negotiating parties and all factions inside Iran.
The state-owned IRAN daily wrote on its front-page, “The collapse of sanctions”.
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It aims to increase the time Iran would need to make enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon from several months to a year, primarily by capping Tehran’s ability to enrich uranium, which can create material ranging from reactor fuel to warhead material.
