N-deal terms met, sanctions on Iran are lifted

Freed American Prisoners Leave Tehran, Obama Hails Win For Diplomacy

Iran kept its pledge to roll back its nuclear programme, the United States kept its word to lift sanctions, and some four decades of bad pathology between Washington and Tehran -allies before the 1979 Iranian revolution -continued to be washed away with a prisoner swap between the two sides adding to the return of trust.The international atomic energy watchdog IAEA confirmed on Saturday that Tehran had fulfilled its part of a nuclear deal by mothballing a heavywater reactor, cutting its centrifuges by a third from 19,000 to 6,000, and shipping 98% of its nuclear fuel to Russia, thus reducing its stockpile of low-enriched uranium from 10,000 kilos to 300 kilos. Collectively, the steps ostensibly rolled back pursuit of a nuclear arsenal.

According to the White House, this would extend Iran's “breakout time,“ should it decide to make a nuclear bomb, from 2-3 months to more than a year. The IAEA also confirmed that Iran was offering unprecedented 24365 access to nuclear inspections.

In an added confidence-building measure Iran on Saturday also freed five American prisoners, including a Washington Post reporter, even as the US and EU lifted oil and financial sanctions, releasing roughly $ 100 billion in Iranian assets and allowing it to rejoin the international financial and economic mainstream. In turn, Washington offered clemency to seven Iranians charged with various crimes in the US.

Three of the five freed Americans, who had left Tehran on a charter plane for Switzerland, landed in Geneva on Sunday , Swiss foreign ministry spokesman Jean-Marc Crevoisier said. A US official said the Swiss plane was carrying Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post's Tehran bureau chief, Saeed Abedini, a pastor from Idaho and Amir Hekmati, a former Marine from Flint.

Abedini's wife Naghmeh tweeted: “Saeed just landed in Geneva. He is getting ready to leave to Germany . I should talk with Saeed in just a few hours! Thank you for your prayers!“ One more Iranian-American released under the same swap, Nosratollah KhosraviRoodsari, was not aboard the aircraft. A fifth prisoner, American student Matthew Trevithick, was released separately on Saturday , a US official said.

“This is a good day ,“ President Barack Obama said in a rare Sunday morning appearance at the White House, positively glowing in his final year of diplomatic glory . “Once again we're seeing what's possible with strong American diplo macy .“ The seizure of American sailors earlier in the week hours ahead of Obama's state of the union address briefly appeared to threaten the progress, but such is the confidence the two sides seem to have in each other that Obama made no mention of the incident in the speech and the seamen were released soon after without much ado. Obama cited this as an example of subtle diplomacy, suggesting it was possible to achieve better results without overreacting to incidents and creating a war psychosis.

“Engaging directly with the Iranian government on a sustained basis, for the first time in decades, has created a unique opportunity , a window, to resolve important issues,“ Obama said, adding, “We've achieved this historic progress through diplomacy , without resorting to another war in the Middle East.“

While Americans may soon be able to savor Iranian pistachios and caviar, Iran will also be able to access technology ranging from iPads to airplane parts that had remained out of bounds for it, although the easing of sanctions is conditional and some relating to terrorism remain in place. But as with Cuba, the Washington bureaucracy will work its way through the thicket of rules and regulations now that the principal of normalizing ties with Iran has been articulated.

The development is of profound consequence for India and the subcontinent. New Delhi has had historically good ties with Tehran despite occasional glitches (like in 1971 when Iran supported Pakistan and served as a base for its air assets), and in recent years has had to go into financial contortions to get around US sanc tions to maintain trade ties with Iran, an important source of energy supply for India.

More importantly , the USIranian patch-up also means Washington has an alternative route to landlocked Afghanistan rather than depend only on an unstable Pakistan.

Successive US administration have had to suffer and endure a schizoid relationship with two countries that for all the talk of being US allies have done more to poison the region with extremism and damage US interests than any two countries in the world.