Released Americans Have Not Left Iran Yet: Senior Iranian Official

“I find it rather freaky that the United States expresses concern over the Iranian missile programme, which is defensive and does not violate any current global regulation”, Zarif said, addressing an audience of bankers and top business figures.

On October 11, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) successfully test-fired its first guided ballistic missile dubbed Emad.

US officials said the sanctions are being imposed as a result of Tehran’s firing of a medium-range ballistic missile, Fox News reported.

Khamenei’s nod also was needed to green-light additional talks leading to the two-country prisoner deal that culminated Saturday.

The new sanctions come after economic sanctions were lifted which were tied to Iran’s nuclear program.

U.S. media said Washington would either pardon or drop charges against seven Iranians in exchange for the Americans. The release of the four Americans, including a Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, was part of a prisoner swap between Iran and the US.

Under July’s deal, Iran’s nuclear activities will be severely constrained and remain under strict oversight for the next decade, but Tehran will then be able to scale up its production of nuclear fuel. The removing of the sanctions after tough negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme shows that diplomacy has the ability to triumph as opposed to war-mongering (or that the United States now has a different foreign policy interest). USA experts had estimated that Iran would need until March to complete all the work involved in idling two-thirds of centrifuges, exporting almost all of its spent fuel, removing a reactor core and pouring concrete in it…. A fifth prisoner, American student Matthew Trevithick, was released separately on Saturday, a USA official said.

Will the US also release Iranians in custody?

FILE – President Hassan Rouhani, center, and Iran’s Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan, second right, visit Iran’s defense capabilities exhibition in Tehran, Aug. 24, 2014.

Speaking after Americans who had been imprisoned and freed by Iran had left the country, Obama said Iran now would not “get its hands on a nuclear bomb” and the planet would be more secure.