Iran to carry on with missile program despite United States sanctions: spokesman

On Sunday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it was imposing sanctions on 11 people and companies involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program.

The reports of his release came as the Iranian foreign minister and world leaders gathered in Vienna Saturday to complete an agreement that would see nuclear-related sanctions on the country lifted.

“Several Americans, unjustly detained by Iran, are finally coming home”.

The US dropped charges against 7 Iranians in the US and another 14 outside the country as part of the deal.

The president described the release of six Iranian-Americans and one Iranian charged in the United States as a “reciprocal, humanitarian gesture” that was a one-time event.

What does lifting economic sanctions mean for Iran?

Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, former USA marine Amir Hekmati and pastor Saeed Abedini were sent immediately to Germany en route to the United States, while Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari chose to remain in Iran.

Iran drew condemnation from the United States and other Western powers for two ballistic missile tests late a year ago said to violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Obama reminded that the US still had sanctions on Iran for its alleged violations of human rights and alleged support for terrorism and ballistic missile program.

Obama pardoned the seven Iranians as part of a larger prisoner swap that led to the release of four Americans from Iranian prisons.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari called the new sanctions illegitimate. “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. “A similar and sustained effort will be required in the future”, Amano said in statement to the media after meeting the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi.

Hardline newspapers Kayhan and Vatan-e-Emrooz splashed the news on their front pages, crowding out a triumphal speech by President Hassan Rouhani, who on Sunday hailed the lifting of the nuclear sanctions. Additional sanctions will be lifted on the so-called “Transition Day” eight years after the deal, so in 2023.