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U.S. Imposes New Sanctions Over Iran Missile Tests 3 Freed Americans Leave Iran; U.S. Places New Sanctions
(about 5 hours later)
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced Sunday that it was imposing new, more limited sanctions on some Iranian citizens and companies for violating United Nations resolutions against ballistic missile tests. The move came less than 24 hours after the White House lifted broader sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program. VIENNA — With three Americans long held in Iran flying to Europe on Sunday, President Obama urged young Iranians to “pursue a new path” with the West as he imposed modest new sanctions on the country for banned missile tests.
The announcement, which was prepared several weeks ago but delayed by the Treasury Department, was made shortly after a Swiss plane carrying Americans freed by the Iranian authorities departed Tehran. The release of the Americans came a day after Iran and the United States concluded delicate negotiations on a prisoner exchange tied indirectly to the completion of a nuclear agreement. The images of long-delayed freedom and Washington’s double-edged message underscored the uncertainties about the long-term implications of a dizzying 48 hours of diplomacy between Washington and Tehran that yielded a mutual prisoner release. It had hints of a budding era of détente. But there were clearly forces in both capitals arguing against any form of cooperation.
President Obama on Sunday hailed the agreements with Iran as the beginning of what he hoped would be a new era of constructive relations between two nations, which have been long estranged over ideology and regional ambitions. By the end of the weekend, the three Americans — a Washington Post reporter, a former Marine and a pastor — were at an American air base in Germany undergoing medical examinations, almost home after languishing in Iran’s worst prisons. The Iranians, for their part, were trying to adjust to a new world in which they were free to sell their oil around the world, but at prices far lower than they anticipated, and to reconnect with a global financial system that had been closed off to them while they were expanding their nuclear infrastructure.
“This is a good day,” Mr. Obama said in a televised statement from the White House. And it was unclear how they would spend upward of $100 billion in newly unfrozen funds — on long-delayed social welfare projects, or on paying for the proxy wars that have expanded Iranian influence.
“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,” said Mr. Obama, who has staked his political credibility on the opening with Iran. “That’s the opportunity before the Iranian people. We need to take advantage of that.” Mr. Obama also announced the resolution of another argument between Tehran and Washington that dates to the Iranian revolution, this one over $400 million in payments for military equipment that the United States sold to the shah of Iran and never delivered when he was overthrown. The Iranians got their money back, with $1.3 billion in interest that had accumulated over 37 years.
But Mr. Obama vowed to continue monitoring Iran’s nuclear program to ensure it does not cheat and said he would work to restrain any aggressive behavior by Iran, including terrorist activity and human rights abuses. But perhaps the most notable part of Mr. Obama’s statement on Sunday was its absence of triumphalism and its warning that problems with Iran over ideology, Syria and regional ambitions were not over.
He also noted the new sanctions on those involved with Iran’s recent ballistic missile tests conducted in violation of United Nations restrictions, but he did not elaborate or dwell on that dispute. “This is a good day,” Mr. Obama said. “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.”
In a statement, the Treasury Department said it was targeting for sanctions “11 entities and individuals involved in procurement on behalf of Iran’s ballistic missile program” and “five Iranian individuals who have worked to procure ballistic missile components for Iran.” It mirrored the words of Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, who, at a news conference in Tehran, wondered aloud whether the United States would take advantage of the opening. He did not mention the prisoner release or the dismantling of a nuclear infrastructure that Iran had spent billions of dollars building up.
While the optics of the back-to-back sanctions announcements might seem to suggest that Washington was imposing new measures to make up for those that were lifted Saturday, they are actually nowhere near comparable. “This success is the result of resistance, integrity, unity and linkage between different branches and pillars of the system,” he said. “Everybody is happy except the Zionists, the warmongers who are fueling sectarian war among Islamic nations, and the hard-liners in the U.S. Congress.”
The action taken Saturday allowed Iran to re-enter the world’s oil markets; according to some estimates, by the end of the year its exports may increase by a million barrels a day, yielding roughly $30 million a day in revenue at current prices. Its ships will be able to enter and leave foreign ports, and its people will have access to global financial markets. With a few strokes of a pen, Mr. Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry released more than $100 billion in frozen funds, mostly from past oil sales. With critics of Mr. Rouhani saying that the latest sanctions reveal Washington’s true stripes, and elections looming in Iran, Mr. Rouhani has to make the case that his outreach to the United States brought tangible economic benefits. With Republican presidential candidates denouncing the prisoner release, Mr. Obama has to make the case that his decision to negotiate created a channel of communication that is in America’s interest. On Sunday, he took a swipe at his critics, recalling Iran’s seizure of Navy boats and sailors last week.
The new sanctions are mostly aimed at individuals and some small companies accused of shipping crucial technologies to Iran, including carbon fiber and missile parts that can survive re-entry forces. The sanctions are so focused on those individuals and firms that most Iranians will never feel them, and the amounts are comparatively tiny. “When our sailors in the Persian Gulf accidentally strayed into Iranian waters,” he said, “that could have sparked a major international incident. Some folks here in Washington rushed to declare that it was the start of another hostage crisis.” Instead, he said, a few phone calls were made and the United States “secured the release of our sailors in less than 24 hours.”
Mr. Obama also announced Sunday that, in addition to the completion of the nuclear deal and the prisoner swap, the United States and Iran had resolved a three-decade-old financial dispute. The United States will return Iranian money held since the hostage crisis of 1979-81 with interest — but far less than Iran had been seeking, Mr. Obama said. Mr. Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, who orchestrated the events over the weekend, decided several weeks ago to delay the imposition of sanctions against Iranian companies and individuals for two missile tests, one in October and another in November, that had violated United Nations resolutions.
Administration officials had denied that the missile sanctions were being delayed for political reasons. Mr. Obama had vowed to continue to apply non-nuclear sanctions, even after last summer’s nuclear agreement had been signed. But State Department officials worried that the prisoner release would be imperiled if the sanctions were announced before the swap was arranged. “We didn’t know how big the risk was,” said one senior official. “But it wasn’t trivial.”
Relatives of three of the freed Americans — Jason Rezaian, Amir Hekmati and Saeed Abedini — expressed joy after getting phone calls from the State Department that their family members were en route to Switzerland and then on to an American air base in Germany. The three men arrived first in Geneva on Sunday, accompanied by Mr. Rezaian’s wife, Yeganeh Salehi, and mother, a State Department official, Brett McGurk, said in a Twitter message. They then continued on to Germany. While the appearance of the back-to-back sanctions announcements — lifting nuclear sanctions and adding missile sanctions — might seem to suggest that Washington was merely recategorizing old penalties, they are actually not comparable.
The fourth American freed in the exchange, Nosratollah Khosravi — whose incarceration had not been reported until the prisoner exchange was announced Saturday — was not on the plane, American officials said. It was not immediately clear why. The lifting of nuclear sanctions on Saturday allowed Iran to re-enter the world’s oil markets; according to some estimates, by the end of the year its exports may increase by a million barrels a day, yielding about $30 million a day in revenue at current prices. Its ships will be able to enter and leave foreign ports, and its citizens will have access to global financial markets.
Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, did not address the prisoner swap on Sunday. At a news conference, he said that since the sanctions were lifted, the door had opened for foreign investments in the country, even by American companies. The new sanctions are aimed mostly at individuals and some small companies accused of shipping crucial technologies to Iran, including carbon fiber and missile parts that can survive re-entry forces. Because the sanctions are focused on those individuals and firms, most Iranians will never feel them, and the amounts are comparatively tiny.
“They can invest here anytime, but they have their own obstacles to do so,” Mr. Rouhani said. He did not comment on whether the lifting of the sanctions after two years of talks with world powers, including the United States, would lead to more cooperation by Iran in Syria. Instead, he promised Iran a new and better future. The release of three of the freed Americans — Jason Rezaian, Amir Hekmati and Saeed Abedini — came after a tense day in which the Swiss aircraft sent for them sat on the tarmac in Tehran. The main issue was the American insistence that Mr. Rezaian’s wife, Yageneh Salehi, and his mother be able to fly out with him. They were eventually allowed on the plane.
The family of Mr. Hekmati, 32, a former Marine incarcerated in Iran longer than any of the others, issued a statement expressing relief that he was out of Iran. Mr. Rezaian, The Post’s Tehran correspondent, was arrested in July 2014 on vague charges that included spying. The Post and news media advocates around the world defended his innocence and protested increasingly loudly about his case.
“It is hard to put into words what our family feels right now,” the family said. “But we remain in hopeful anticipation until Amir is in our arms.” “I am incredibly relieved that Jason is on his way home,” Mr. Rezaian’s brother Ali Rezaian said in a statement. He said he had received a call from President Obama expressing concern for his brother’s well-being.
The family of Mr. Rezaian, 39, the Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent, also expressed enormous relief after an agonizing 24 hours between when the exchange was publicly disclosed and when they received confirmation that the Americans had left. The fourth American freed in the exchange, Nosratollah Khosravi — whose incarceration had not been reported until the prisoner deal was announced on Saturday — was not on the plane, American officials said. He chose to stay in Tehran, saying that he had an apartment there.
Mr. Rezaian was arrested in July 2014 on vague charges that included spying. The Washington Post and news media advocates around the world defended his innocence and protested increasingly loudly about his case. The family of Mr. Hekmati, 32, a former Marine incarcerated in Iran longer than any of the others, issued a statement expressing relief that he was out of Iran. “It is hard to put into words what our family feels right now,” the statement said. “Today is an incredible day for all of us.”
“I am incredibly relieved that Jason is on his way home,” Mr. Rezaian’s brother, Ali Rezaian, said in a statement. “He is a talented journalist, who was simply doing his job fairly, accurately and lawfully.”
He added: “Today is an incredible day for all of us.”
Naghmeh Abedini, the wife of Mr. Abedini, a 35-year-old pastor from Boise, Idaho, said she had been up all night awaiting the State Department’s phone call. “They have finally left Iranian soil!” she said in a text message.Naghmeh Abedini, the wife of Mr. Abedini, a 35-year-old pastor from Boise, Idaho, said she had been up all night awaiting the State Department’s phone call. “They have finally left Iranian soil!” she said in a text message.
She said that she and members of the Rezaian and Hekmati families were planning to meet with their loved ones in Germany over the next few days. In a memo on Sunday to the Washington Post staff, Martin Baron, the executive editor, and Douglas Jehl, the foreign editor, reported that they had had a brief conversation with Mr. Rezaian, who was catching up on the news reports about his release on his mother’s iPad. “Asked how he was doing,” the memo said, he responded, “I’m a hell of a lot better than I was 48 hours ago.”
An American who had been arrested several weeks ago in Tehran, where he was studying Farsi, also was freed to leave the country as part of the negotiations to free the other Americans. The arrest of that American, Matthew Trevithick, had not been publicly disclosed until the prisoner exchange was announced on Saturday.
The United States released seven Iranians held on sanctions violation charges as part of the prisoner exchange and rescinded international arrest warrants on 14 others.
The Iranian authorities considered the Americans released in the exchange to be Iranian citizens because of their dual nationalities. Publicly, government officials in Iran said they were not legally obligated to afford the prisoners the same rights given to other foreigners arrested in the country.
The exchange went a long way toward resolving an increasingly emotional side dispute between the two countries, one complicated by a legacy of hostility and mistrust built over the 35 years since the Islamic Revolution and the American hostage crisis in Tehran, where 52 Americans were held for 444 days.
Nonetheless, at least one other American, Siamak Namazi, a business consultant, remained held in Iran. He was arrested in October for unclear reasons. American officials have said they are still working to have him released.
Mr. Trevithick’s departure from Iran was handled separately, and he was not on the Swiss plane, his family said.