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Iran comes in from the cold as nuclear deal applied

– ‘Snapback’ mechanism –

The agreement, heralded as US President Barack Obama’s biggest major foreign policy triumph, has by no means been universally cheered, however.

Obama’s Republican opponents charge that it fails to do enough to ensure Iran will never get the bomb, a complaint shared by Israel, Iran’s arch foe widely assumed to have nuclear weapons itself.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday Iran “has not relinquished its ambition to obtain nuclear weapons, and continues to act to destabilise the Middle East and spread terror throughout the world”.

Sunni Saudi Arabia, Iran’s other great regional rival, is also alarmed at the prospect of warmer US-Iran ties and of predominantly Shiite Iran, newly flush with oil revenues, increasing its influence.

Already Saudi Arabia and Iran, fighting a proxy war in Yemen and key players in the Syrian conflict, are at daggers drawn following Saudi Arabia’s execution of a Shiite cleric this month and the subsequent ransacking of the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

Iran’s imminent return to the oil market has also contributed to the sharp slide in the price of crude to 12-year lows of under $30 per barrel this week, putting Riyadh’s public finances under strain – and meaning that Tehran’s oil bonanza will be less lucrative than it had hoped for.

The deal has more than a decade to run, which is likely to be a bumpy road, experts say, not least if more hardline governments take power in Tehran or Washington.

A “snapback” mechanism ensures that many of the sanctions can be swiftly reimposed, and a special joint commission is meant to handle any misunderstandings.

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