“Iran’s missile program has never been created to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said, according to the ISNA news agency.
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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”.
Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani said yesterday that the official implementation of the landmark nuclear deal has satisfied all parties except radical extremists.
And Iran, on the other hand, promised more transparency on its nuclear program, allowing United Nations nuclear inspectors to monitor Tehran’s atomic program.
“They’re civilians, and their release is a one-time gesture to Iran given the unique opportunity offered by this moment and the larger circumstances at play”, he said.
The secretary of state also implied that much of the frozen funds would be directed toward infrastructure, both in Iran’s oil industry and for civic projects. Netanyahu said that the recent accord would strengthen and embolden Iran’s leaders, since the lifting of most sanctions would free up money for Tehran to arm and support the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Shiite militias and Israel’s enemies in the region, including Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
“We talked about future cooperation, especially in the new atmosphere, and we partially drew the road map” for continued efforts, Mr Salehi said after the talks.
The White House said its lawyers assessed that the USA could have faced a “significantly higher judgment” if the case continued and Obama said there “was no benefit to the U.S.in dragging this out”.
The UN atomic agency minutes earlier confirmed it had issued a report verifying that Iran carried out those steps, which significantly scale back its nuclear infrastructure.
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.
Media captionWhat will the lifting of sanctions on Iran mean? The U.S. also agreed to drop Interpol “red notices” – essentially arrest warrants – on 14 Iranian fugitives. The EU and U.S. lifted sanctions shortly after that.
The Vienna agreement was nailed down after two years of rollercoaster negotiations following Rouhani’s election.
What does the deal mean for Iran’s nuclear program?
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An image grab taken from footage broadcast on the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network last October reportedly shows missile launchers in an underground tunnel at an unknown location in Iran.
