President Obama touted diplomacy as key to the nuclear agreement with Iran in a statement Sunday from the White House.
“This is a good day, because once again we’re seeing what’s possible with a strong American diplomacy,” Obama said.
“Under the nuclear deal … Iran will not get its hand on a nuclear bomb,” Obama said.
“Every single path Iran could have used to create a bomb has been cut off,” he added. He listed the shutdown of Iranian centrifuges, the removal of uranium stockpiles and the shutdown of a reactor capable of producing plutonium for a bomb as examples. More visibility, with constant surveillance by international inspectors on the ground, was also made possible by the negotiations, Obama said.
While the president admitted that the nuclear deal was “never intended to resolve all of our differences with Iran,” he asserted that with the open channel of communication for the agreement, negotiations to release 10 detained sailors and a handful of imprisoned U.S. citizens were facilitated.
“Several Americans unjustly detained by Iran are finally coming home,” Obama said. “I gave these families my word and a vow that we would do everything in our power to win the release of their loved ones. And we have been tireless. After the nuclear deal was completed, the discussions between out governments accelerated. Yesterday these families finally got the news they’d been waiting for.”
In a conference call following the president’s address, a senior administration official confirmed that three of the Americans released by Iran flew out of Tehran this morning, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian.
In the trade for freeing the U.S. citizens, the United States granted clemency to seven Iranians serving sentences or awaiting trial for sanctions violations, Obama said. The individuals were not charged with terrorism or violent offenses.
A financial dispute between the U.S. and Iran is also on its way to being resolved, Obama said, as the U.S. seeks to address Iranian claims against the U.S. government. Iran will be returned some but not all the funds it sought, he said.
It was a reference to a long outstanding claim at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in the Hague related to a trust fund used by Iran to purchase military equipment from the United States before the two severed diplomatic ties in 1980.
The State Department announced Sunday morning in a press release that Iran will receive $400 million in the Trust Fund, as well as a roughly $1.3 billion compromise on the interest, which Obama remarked could have been far more money if the U.S. had dragged out the dispute.
While today’s announcement was intended to boast about the U.S. and Iran’s improved relations, Obama warned there are some conflicts the two countries have yet to resolve.
Profound differences remain between the United States and Iran, Obama said, adding the U.S. remains committed to opposing Iran’s threats to Israel and allies in the Gulf region, and its support for violent proxies in Syria and Yemen.
He said sanctions on Iran are still in place for human rights violations and its ballistic missile program and that a recent missile test is a violation of international obligations and several individuals and entities have been slapped with new sanctions.
“We have a chance to pursue a new path,” Obama said in a direct message to the Iranian people, adding that they are a part of “a great civilization.”
“For decades, your government’s threats and actions to destabilize your region have isolated Iran from much of the world,” Obama said. “And now our governments are talking with one another. Following the nuclear deal, you — especially young Iranians — have the opportunity to begin building new ties with the world. We have a rare chance to pursue a new path — a different, better future that delivers progress for both our peoples and the wider world. That’s the opportunity before the Iranian people. We need to take advantage of that.”
On Saturday, the United Nations’ nuclear agency determined Iran had fulfilled the guidelines imposed in the nuclear deal, and lifted economic sanctions and as a result, the U.S. and its allies released about $100 billion in frozen assets. Iran also released four dual U.S.-Iranian citizens in exchange for Iranian criminals jailed in the United States.
