We welcome the lifting of the long-running international sanctions against Iran. It will certainly help the country to recover from the consequences of the embargo that the country was under for so many years. As Iran emerges from a virtual economic isolation, its assets in the western countries will now be unfrozen and it will be able to trade freely with the outside world. 

The change is the outcome of a deal between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers that include the US, UK, France, China and Russia plus Germany. The negotiated settlement of such a long-running crisis has indeed restored our confidence in the international negotiation process. It is a testimony to the success of dialogue over brute force, which should be replicated in all the flashpoints across the world. 

We congratulate President Barrack Obama and the Iranian leadership for the sagacity with which they have handled the negotiation process. For both sides, it was a difficult decision to make. This is especially so for the Iranian leadership which has to abandon its nuclear ambition that was one of the rallying cries of the hardliners. Having said that, we are constrained to revisit the underlying issue of the abolition of nuclear weapons. There are countries and entities that have circumvented international laws to get their hands on the deadly bomb. Instead of reprimanding them through sanctions, we have witnessed that some members of the international community have helped them make such a lethal weapon. While welcoming Iran in the nuclear non-proliferation club, we call for the removal of all nuclear arsenals from the face of the earth.