A Brighter Day in American-Iranian Relationships

January 19th, 2016

Awake Goy

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, shown above, negotiated nuclear deal with Iran.

Recent events on the diplomatic stage signal a brighter day has arrived in American-Iranian relationships: John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State, has spearheaded a successful Nuclear Arms Agreement with Iran that, if kept, will assure that Iran will not develop nuclear capability for at least 15 years. And it appears as if Iran plans to adhere to the agreement, for last week they had fulfilled the stipulations of the agreement required to have the long-standing Western imposed economic sanctions lifted. This means that Iran can now access some $100 billion in frozen access and open up new opportunities to revive its heavily damaged economy.

Vienna, Austria, was the site where, on Saturday (1/16/16), the announcement of this major international diplomatic success was made. It was the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials who verified that Iran had fully complied with the commitments they had made in the agreement. All parties were clearly pleased with the outcome: IAEA director general Yukiya Amano said: “It is an important day for the international community.” European Union Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini stated that the accord “demonstrates that with political will, perseverance, and through multilateral diplomacy, we can solve the most difficult issues.” John Kerry declared: “Today marks the day of a safer world.” And Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made this statement: “Our region has been freed from [the] shadow of an unnecessary conflict… Today is also a good day for the world.”

Also on Saturday, in a parallel-track, Iranian officials announced that Iran was set to release four imprisoned American citizens in exchange for seven Iranian prisoners held in the United States. Additionally, U.S. officials confirmed that a fifth American prisoner had been released by Iran in an effort unrelated to the exchange.

In an interview with Robin Young of Here & Now, Professor Nicholas Burns of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government stated this about the prisoner exchange: “I think this was a difficult compromise…but the [four American] hostages had been held for a long time and they’d been held unjustly in Iran. President Obama felt he had an obligation to get them back. It was a bitter pill to swallow, that seven Iranian-Americans in jail in the United States for violating our sanctions would now receive clemency. But I think on balance, it was the right decision for President Obama.”

Estrangement has existed between the United States and Iran since the 1979 hostage crisis, some 36 years ago. An additional sign that a brighter day in relationships between the two countries has dawned is Iran’s quick release (a day later) of the 10 U.S. sailors that were detained when their two vessels intruded into Iranian waters on Tuesday, 1/12/16. The two vessels were also safely returned to U.S. control.