President Obama Says US Seeing Results of Diplomacy With Iran

Iranian officials have argued the new sanctions would violate the letter and spirit of the nuclear deal. “Most of all, we achieved this historic result through diplomacy, without risking another war in the Middle East”, Obama said in a televised statement from the White House. “We did not want to complicate what was a very sensitive and delicate effort to bring Americans home with that action”, the official said.

Shortly after the announcement that Iran had met the terms of the agreement, the United States and other world powers lifted oil and economic sanctions.

Rouhani, who has promised that 2016 will be a “year of prosperity” for Iranians, said that following the lifting of sanctions Iran would seek foreign investment of $30-$50 billion annually, to dramatically spur growth to eight percent.

Also on Sunday, U.S. announced that Iran will receive 1.7 billion U.S. dollars in debt and interest as Obama pledged that it is time to solve the financial disputes between the two countries.

STR/EPA Washington Post Iranian-American journalist Jason Rezaian was freed from Iranian custody in a deal where the US agreed to grant clemency to seven Iranians.

Fourteen months ago, President Obama authorized a top-secret, second diplomatic channel with Tehran to negotiate freedom for Americans who had disappeared or been imprisoned in Iran….

For Iran, the move lifts Western economic sanctions that have been in place for years, unlocking access to $100 billion in frozen assets and unleashing new opportunities for its battered economy.

Mr Obama campaigned for the White House in 2008 on a promise to engage with United States enemies including Iran and Cuba.

“The United States and Iran are now settling a longstanding Iranian government claim against the United States government”.

The US has imposed fresh sanctions on Iranian companies and individuals over a recent ballistic missile test.

Rohani said Iran’s nuclear deal signed in July in Vienna with the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany was a win for all negotiating parties and all factions inside Iran.

The deal isn’t the end of tension between the USA and Iran.

“Whereas Tehran was expanding its nuclear, program, we have now cut off every single path that Iran could have used to create a bomb”, he said. His comments follow a momentous day that saw global inspectors confirm that Iran had hobbled a nuclear program that had been decades in the making, costly to build and the source of extreme national pride.