US Applies Sanctions On Iranian Missile Program

Kerry and a number of senior aides to President Obama, who was on holiday in Hawaii, held a series of telephone conferences and concluded that they can not risk losing an opportunity to free the Americans held by Iran.

“The US sanctions against Iran’s ballistic missile programme… have no legal or moral legitimacy”.

Obama 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.

Diplomats from the United States and Iran worked for more than a year in negotiating the complex prisoner swap, officials said.

On Saturday, Obama signed an executive order to lift sanctions on Iran after global inspectors concluded that Iran has dismantled large parts of its nuclear programme as promised.

The 39-year-old Jason Rezaian, a dual US-Iranian citizen born in California, was detained in Iran on July 22, 2014.

Iran accused the US of “acts of propaganda and harassment” on Monday after Washington imposed new sanctions against a number of individuals and entities involved in Tehran’s ballistic missile program.

“It happened to come together at that moment, I think that everybody saw that that would be propitious, but it was not directly linked”, he said.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani yesterday called on Americans to invest in his country, saying “there aren’t any obstacles in front of them”.

The U.S. imposed the new measures Sunday against five Iranian nationals and a network of companies with links to banned missile activity a move that followed the lifting of economic sanctions tied to Iran’s nuclear program.

Another, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, did not fly out with the others, USA officials said. Three of US citizens left Tehran Sunday morning, according to USA officials, while the fourth decided not to board the Switzerland-bound airplane.

At the same time, the U.S. State Department announced it had agreed to release $400 million and $1.3 billion in interest for funds that had been frozen by the United State. While Obama emphasized that the US continues to have deep concerns about Iran’s destabilizing actions in the Middle East and its threats to Israel, he also opened up the prospect of Tehran working more cooperatively with the rest of the world.