Iran To Free Washington Post Reporter Jason Rezaian

The United States announced on Sunday new sanctions relating to Iran’s ballistic missile program, a day after the Obama administration lifted sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program.

The US Department of the Treasury says it has imposed new sanctions on Iran for its ballistic missile program.

 The new sanctions announced Sunday target companies in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates as well as six Iranian individuals and one Chinese citizen. A charter plane left Tehran for Switzerland with the Americans – all four who had been detained, according to Iran state television; only three, the USA said – as part of a prisoner swap.

Rezaian, 39, the Post’s Tehran bureau chief, was arrested in Iran in July 2014 and sentenced last November to a prison term.

“I’m so happy for those people and their families to be relieved of this agony”, said Ali Shakeri, an American businessman who is with the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at the University of California-Irvine and was imprisoned in Iran in 2007.

“Today… the United States, our friends and allies in the Middle East, and the entire world are safer because the threat of the nuclear weapon has been reduced”, Mr. Kerry said. “They are civilians and their release is a one-time gesture to Iran given the unique opportunity offered by this moment and the larger circumstances at play”.

He also said that Tehran had agreed to deepen coordination with the U.S.in trying to locate former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared nearly nine years ago during a visit to Iran.

President Barack Obama said his government will “vigorously” enforce sanctions against Iran’s ballistic missile program.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday his country would not breach its landmark nuclear deal with world powers as long as the West also honored its commitments to the accord, APA reports quoting Reuters.

“We went through a period of time while they were located and ultimately reunited with Jason, and now all is well that ends well”. In his first comments since the deal took effect, Iran’s highest authority made clear that Washington should still be treated with suspicion.