Iran deal brings closure to family of jailed journalist

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

Hingham native and Boston University graduate Matthew Trevithick was among the freed USA captives, though officials said his release was not part of the prisoner swap.

Four of the American prisoners, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, were freed in exchange for Washington pardoning seven Iranians accused of sanctions-busting.

Following the announcement of the nuclear deal, the U.S. confirmed it has imposed fresh sanctions on 11 companies and individuals in Iran, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates for violating a United Nations ban on ballistic missile tests.

Obama’s move came after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verified that Iran has implemented its commitments made in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and announced to remove international economic sanctions against the country.

Obama said Iran has agreed “to deepen our coordination” in the search for Robert Levinson, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007, and who, according to his family members, was part of the discussion that led to the prisoner swap.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said that the United States sells weaponry worth tens of billions of dollars to their allies in the Middle East each year.

World leaders hailed the deal, and the subsequent lifting of European and United States sanctions, as a milestone in global diplomacy.

Mr Rouhani pledged that the lifting of sanctions will give a major boost to Iran’s economy in 2016.

Iranian supreme leader also called on the country’s officials to be vigilant about the “deceit and treachery” of “arrogant countries”, in particular the United States, in the nuclear case and other issues.

“Yesterday marked a milestone in preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon”, Mr Obama said.

The three arrived at a U.S. military base in Germany, after a brief stop in Geneva, a USA official said.

Rouhani, a pragmatist elected in 2013 on promises to end Iran’s years of sanctions and isolation, said he looked forward to an economic future less dependent on oil exports.

A day after President Obama signed executive actions to lift economic sanctions against Iran, the impact of that deal was reverberating through the local Iranian American community – the largest Iranian diaspora community in the world.

What does the deal mean for Iran’s nuclear program? Israel’s policy was and remained exactly the same: to not let Iran achieve nuclear weapons.