Iran Says New US Sanctions Illegitimate, Points To Washington’s Arms Sales

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaking Wednesday to The Associated Press, called the ballistic program legitimate self-defense and said the prospect of restoring bilateral diplomatic relations is “far away” despite the recent landmark nuclear deal.

State television reported that Khamenei wrote to President Hassan Rouhani to congratulate him on implementing the nuclear deal, which resulted in US, European Union and United Nations sanctions being lifted over the weekend.

Media waited in front of the U.S. military Ramstein air base in Germany on Monday (January 17), where three Iranian-Americans who left Tehran on Sunday under a U.S. prisoner swap with Iran had arrived late on Sunday as a U.S. State department official confirmed. But he added the U.S. would continue to enforce the non-nuclear sanctions that remain on Iran, including for issues such as support for terrorism and ballistic missiles.

They include slashing by two-thirds its uranium centrifuges, reducing its stockpile of uranium – enough before the deal for several bombs – and removing the core of its Arak reactor, which could have given Iran weapons-grade plutonium.

“This is a good day because once again we’re seeing what is possible with strong American diplomacy”, Obama said.

The decisions followed the confirmation by the world’s nuclear energy watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran has fulfilled its obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreed last July in Vienna, which are created to dispel the international community’s earlier suspicions over the peaceful character of the Iranian nuclear programme. Others, such as a declaration that “Iran does not have an inherent right to uranium enrichment”, would be provocative without having any practical effect on Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon.

President Barack Obama hailed the nuclear deal as “smart”.

“We’re not going to waver in the defence of our security or that of our allies and partners”, Obama said. Iran will get more than $400 million, plus $1.3 billion in interest.

The new sanctions came after four Iranian-Americans, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, were released in a prisoner swap with the United States.

And finally – there’s a mystery man, the fourth American prisoner who was released along with the others, but apparently stayed behind in Iran.

In exchange for the release of the Americans, the US will either pardon or drop charges against seven Iranians – six of them dual citizens – accused or convicted of violating USA sanctions. The changes have given Iran the chance to flood the oil market with its cheap, high quality crude oil, which would be beneficial for an oil importer like India.