Iran slams fresh US sanctions on missile programme

“This is a good day because once again we are seeing what’s possible through strong American diplomacy”, Obama said at the White House.

The prisoner deal was the culmination of months of diplomatic contacts, secret talks and legal manoeuvring which came close to falling apart because of a threat by Washington in December to impose fresh sanctions on Iran for recent ballistic missile tests. The sanctions were a punishment for Iran’s test-firing in October of a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead in violation of a United Nations ban.

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

Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter detained in Iran since July 2014, was due to be freed by the Iranian government on Saturday, along with three other Americans.

“I don’t see these sanctions as being any kind of game changers”, said Jamal Abdi, policy director for the National Iranian American Council, an organization that assists Iranian-American citizens.

A fifth prisoner, American student Matthew Trevithick, was released separately on Saturday, a U.S. official said.

In his first comments since most European Union sanctions were lifted along with many important USA embargoes, Iran’s highest authority made it clear that Washington should be treated with suspicion.

“Musavi has worked directly with North Korean officials in Iran from the U.N.- and U.S.-designated Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID)”, the Treasury said in a statement. The sanctions are so focused on those individuals and firms that most Iranians will never feel them, and the amounts are comparatively tiny. “But I can tell you this, right now, we are not seeing the early delivery of funds going to that kind of endeavor at this point in time”.

Belarus supports the efforts of Iran and the global mediators to lift the sanctions imposed on the Islamic State of Iran and create a favorable worldwide environment, the ministry said.

President Rouhani and Mr. Yukiya Amano, the IAEA General Director met on Monday in Tehran. However, neighboring countries’ leaders are wary of Iran’s new freedom.

Relations between the United States and Iran appear to be improving.