The White House announced that President Barack Obama had signed an executive order lifting the US economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, reported CNN. UN and EU inspectors have confirmed that Iran has completed the necessary steps spelled out in the July 2015 nuclear deal. US Secretary of State, John Kerry, also issued a statement saying that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had verified that Iran “has fully implemented its required commitments.”
According to Reuters, the US government will now allow foreign subsidiaries of American companies to trade with Iran, citing a statement by the US Treasury Department. There were still other bans in effect in the US to be considered, dealing with terrorism, human-rights abuses, and missile activities, said the International Business Times. This has led analysts to predict that European companies will oust American investors heading to post-sanction Iran as European states were eagerly removing all their previously existing bans.
Iran has hailed the US decision while Iranian officials explained that the sanctions relief would also allow the country to access around $30b worth of blocked Iranian assets, Press TV cited Valiollah Seif, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), as saying. On a previous occasion Seif revealed that $6-$7b in government revenues from sales of crude oil alone had been blocked due to sanctions.
In another report, Press TV explained that the IAEA had installed an Online Enrichment Monitor (OLEM) at the Natanz plant to monitor the level of uranium enrichment. The device measures the amount of uranium-235 and the total amount of uranium processed in real time, insuring that Iran’s nuclear program is for purely peaceful, power generating purposes.
In related news, Russia Today reported that Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate, has called for a new set of sanctions on Iran, accusing Tehran of violating UN Security Council resolutions over its ballistic missile program and recently conducted missile test. She insisted that she would pursue this option against Iran if elected president.
