Obama to make statement about Iran following nuclear deal, prisoner swap

The implementation of the Iranian nuclear deal and five Americans freed by Tehran in a prisoner swap are reasons for optimism, President Obama said Sunday during a rare weekend address, showing the fruits of diplomacy with a still-hostile adversary of the United States.

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….

On Sunday, the USA imposed fresh sanctions on 11 people and entities – based in China and the United Arab Emirates – over their involvement in the country’s ballistic missile test and for serving as a front for Iranian military trafficking.

“We will continue to enforce these sanctions, vigorously”, he said. After the exchange happened yesterday, however, the United States went ahead with the sanctions anyhow.

“I decided that a strong, confident America could advance our national security by engaging directly with the Iranian government.” he said.

Iran has also promised to cooperate with the U.S.to locate Robert Levinson, the ex-CIA contractor who disappeared in Iran in 2007.

In return, the USA will either pardon or drop charges against seven Iranians – six of them dual citizens – accused or convicted of violating US sanctions.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on release that the ship had sailed into the region by mistake.

Obama also reiterated what he said was proof of the strength of American diplomacy. He emphasized that they were not charged with terrorism or any violent offenses.

“The US sanctions against Iran’s ballistic missile programme… have no legal or moral legitimacy”, foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said in a televised news conference.

Iran has “opened a new chapter” in its ties with the world, President Hassan Rouhani said today, after sanctions were lifted under its historic nuclear deal with global powers.

And while the nuclear agreement lifts worldwide sanctions, other penalties imposed unilaterally by the US, over Iran’s missile development and support for terrorist groups, remain in place.

Secretary of State John Kerry echoed the president’s praise for diplomacy on Saturday, when he announced the lifting of sanctions and said that Iran “honored” its obligations to the United Nations atomic watchdog.

But Washington says the issue of Iran’s missile tests is separate from the nuclear accord. An administration official said, without elaborating, that detained US citizens had been released and those who wished to depart Iran had left.