Obama Hails Iran Nuclear Agreement Progress, Prisoner Release

In a rare Sunday address, President Obama hailed implementation of the Iran nuclear deal and said it paved the way for the release of other diplomatic breakthroughs, including the release of several Americans held prisoner in Iran and a longstanding dispute between the two countries in worldwide court.

The president said the USA would continue to seek information about Robert Levinson, an American who went missing in Iran almost a decade ago.

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images President Obama spoke on Sunday about the nuclear weapons deal with Iran and the release of four Americans from custody.

The deal is being seen worldwide as a triumph for global diplomacy and as evidence of warming U.S.-Iran relations since years of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program ended in agreement last July.

Within hours of the release of the Americans, the US imposed sanctions against those involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program as a result of Tehran’s firing of a medium-range ballistic missile.

His remarks were an implicit rebuke to Republicans, who have criticized the president, a Democrat, for his engagement with a country that has always been an enemy of the United States.

As he presented a draft budget for the next fiscal year to parliament, Rohani said the deal was an opportunity for Iran’s economy to cut its “umbilical cord” to oil while prices were low. Those sanctions, applicable to 11 persons and companies, were issued under USA restrictions that remain in place, despite the lifting of the sanctions tied to Iran’s nuclear program. And we will continue to enforce these sanctions, vigorously.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it had blacklisted the UAE-based Mabrooka Trading, and its owner Hossein Pournaghshband for helping Iran’s produce carbon fibre for the programme. A fifth American, Matthew Trevithick, a researcher imprisoned for 40 days, was released separately of the swap; his name was also not previously reported.

“We’ve achieved this historic progress through diplomacy without resorting to another war in the Middle East”, he said. Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, detained in Iran for the past 18 months, is one of the three on board, AFP said.

The nuclear talks have brought a sense of normalcy to relations with the US and Iran, with top officials from each country in somewhat regular communication.

He also admitted that the United States sailors, who were released promptly by Iran after the incursion, had “accidentally strayed into Iranian waters”.

“Iran will receive the balance of Dollars 400 million in the Trust Fund, as well as a roughly USD 1.3 billion compromise on the interest”, he said, in a statement.