The 'richest black nation': Papua New Guinea sets audacious goal

Yahoo – AFP, June 16, 2019

Violent crime and corruption are endemic in Papua New Guinea, reliable electricity
is rare, and population centres are isolated (AFP Photo/ARIS MESSINIS)

Papua New Guinea's new prime minister has an ambitious -- cynics would say far-fetched -- objective of turning one of the world's poorest countries into the "richest black nation" on earth in just a decade.

If national economies were like football teams, then Papua New Guinea would be near the bottom of the table struggling to avoid a relegation dogfight.

Violent crime and corruption are endemic, reliable electricity is rare, and population centres sit like isolated city-states, surrounded by trackless jungle and mountain ridges that soar into the equatorial sky.

As rich as Papua New Guinea is in culture, language and beauty, it is the 153rd most developed country in the world out of 189, according to the United Nations -- doing slightly better than Syria, marginally worse than Myanmar.

New prime minister James Marape wants to change that. He has promised that within ten years his compatriots will live in "the richest black Christian nation" in the world.

That is not going to be easy. The current titleholder is the highly industrialised economy of Trinidad and Tobago, where the average resident earns around 833% more than Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea is rich in culture, language and beauty, but is way down
the UN development rankings (AFP Photo/SAEED KHAN)

If the British territory of Bermuda were also included in the rankings, the task would be even more daunting.

Papua New Guinea's economy would have to grow at a world-beating rate of around 30 percent per year, every year for the next ten years just to catch up.

"PNG has never experienced 30 per cent growth in the past; nor has any other country for that matter, at least not for any sustained period of time," said Maholopa Laveil, a lecturer in economics at the University of Papua New Guinea.

To reach his lofty goal, Marape appears to be betting on a surge in gas revenues and more of that cash staying in the country.

He has hinted that he may look to renegotiate a massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) contract with Total and ExxonMobil that would double national production to better benefit the local economy.

He has also promised to stop the export of unprocessed hardwoods and tackle corruption.

But the strategy comes with risks.

New prime minister James Marape has hinted he may look to renegotiate a massive
LNG contract with Total and ExxonMobil (AFP Photo/SAEED KHAN)

Dashed expectations

The World Bank has warned that even before a second LNG project comes online, the economy has "become increasingly concentrated in petroleum and gas-related activities".

That, the bank warned, raises Papua New Guinea's vulnerability to the vagaries of international energy markets and natural disasters -- like the 7.5 magnitude quake that froze production and stalled the economy in 2018.

Even the country's existing PNG LNG project -- which started to flow in 2014 -- has failed to live up to expectations.

It required a controversial public loan worth more than a billion Australian dollars ($700 million) and helped national debt spike.

The project was forecast to increase GDP by over 97 percent, but according to Paul Flanagan -- a former Australian government official who runs the influential PNG Economics blog -- the increase has been closer to six percent.

The World Bank has warned PNG's vulnerability to earthquakes is increasing along 

with its reliance on petrol and gas (AFP Photo/Melvin LEVONGO)

"Overall, the PNG LNG project massively over-promised and then failed to deliver," one of his recent blog posts read. "For household disposable income, the prediction was an 84 percent improvement. The outcome is a decline of 9 percent."

Flanagan believes that regardless of any energy boom, Marape -- a former finance minister -- will need to undertake difficult currency and trade reforms if the country has any hope of growing sustainably.

"Time will tell if the new government will tackle such difficult political economy challenges, challenges that must be addressed to make PNG a much richer black Christian nation," he said.

Indonesian third-grader's 'school crawl' becomes sensation

Yahoo – AFP, December 20, 2018

Mukhlis Abdul Holik's heartwarming story has become a sensation across
Indonesia (AFP Photo/CANTIGIE NUR FERDINAND)

Sukabumi (Indonesia) (AFP) - Indonesian third-grader Mukhlis Abdul Holik begins the long haul to school with a knapsack strapped to his back and hands stuffed into a pair of sandals -- to guard against road burn.

It is no ordinary trip for the eight-year-old. He has severely deformed feet and legs so tiny that he only reaches up to his classmates' waists when standing.

With his mom in tow, the gap-toothed pupil crawls from his West Java village across rocky paths and an old wooden bridge that he navigates on his hands alone, as his sneakers dangle in the air.

Holik crawls from his West Java village across rocky paths and an old wooden 

bridge that he navigates on his hands alone, as his sneakers dangle in the air 

(AFP Photo/CANTIGIE NUR FERDINAND)

Holik's heartwarming story has become a sensation across the country of 260 million, and earned him a meeting with Indonesian president Joko Widodo, after media covered his trip to school and back -- a distance of nearly six kilometres.

"The road is steep but he crawls every day," said Holik's mother Pipin, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

"If we've got money, then he can take a motorcycle taxi but if things are tight, he's got to crawl. He never complains.... rain or shine, he always goes to school."

Holik declared himself "very happy" after meeting Indonesian President 

Joko Widodo (AFP Photo/CANTIGIE NUR FERDINAND)

Holik met the country's leader on December 3 -- the UN's International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

"I asked Abdul when we met if he wanted anything from me," Widodo said in a statement.

"I thought he'd want me to give him a present. But he didn't want anything. He just said he wanted to go to university."

The pupil declared himself "very happy" for meeting his idol Widodo, who got a full report on Holik's ambitious future plans.

"I want to be a firefighter, a doctor and an astronaut," he told AFP.

Pressure mounts in Australia over Nauru refugee children

Yahoo – AFP, October 28, 2018

Domestic and international criticism of the camps on Nauru has grown amid reports
of abuse, suicides and lengthy detention periods (AFP Photo/PETER PARKS)

Public pressure was mounting on Australia's government Sunday to remove refugee children detained on the Pacific island of Nauru, possibly to New Zealand, even as the prime minister raised fears such transfers could encourage new arrivals.

Under a harsh policy meant to deter asylum-seekers from reaching Australia by boat, Canberra sends arrivals to remote Pacific camps for processing and bars them from resettling in Australia.

But domestic and international criticism of the camps has grown amid reports of abuse, suicides and lengthy detention periods, even as the government says the policy is discouraging asylum-seekers from embarking on dangerous sea voyages.

A YouGov Galaxy poll commissioned by Sydney's Sunday Telegraph -- a tabloid that usually backs the conservative government -- found 79 percent of those surveyed want children and their families transferred off Nauru.

Thousands of Australians on Saturday also rallied in Sydney and Melbourne against the offshore camp.

The children's plight was highlighted earlier this month after Nauru kicked out Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), a global medical charity that had been treating asylum-seekers in the camps.

MSF said many children were suffering "traumatic withdrawal syndrome" and were unable to eat, drink or talk.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR added in mid-October that the health situation of asylum-seekers and refugees was "collapsing".

Ahead of a crucial Sydney by-election this month, PM Scott Morrison seemed willing to work with the Labor opposition to allow some refugees to be transferred to New Zealand, although they would still be blocked from entering Australia.

But with ongoing counting pointing to a loss in the seat for the government, Morrison has since appeared to back away from a deal.

"I just want to get them off, but I want to get them off in a way which does not put more children on Nauru," he told commercial broadcaster Channel Nine on Friday.

"If one boat turns up or one child is floating face down in the water, how would Australia feel then?"

Within Morrison's Liberal Party, three MPs have so far called for children to be removed.

New Zealand has an open offer to take 150 people from Nauru, and PM Jacinda Ardern said Monday she expected women and children to be prioritised if Australia accepts the proposal.

However, she said the decision was "ultimately a matter for the Australian government".

There are 635 asylum-seekers and refugees on Nauru, including 52 children, according to Immigration Minister David Coleman.

There are also some 600 men in transition centres on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island after the camp there was closed late last year, according to refugee advocates.

Under a deal with former American president Barack Obama, 439 people have so far been resettled from Manus and Nauru to the United States, Coleman added.

Spain expected to replace US as 2nd tourism destination

Yahoo – AFP, 15 January 2018

Catalonia has remained a tourism magnet despite a terror attack in August
and a political crisis over independence

Spain is expected to replace the United States as the world's second tourism destination while France has retained the top spot, the UN World Tourism Organization said Monday.

"It is expected" that Spain will take the second position with some 82 million visitors last year, UNWTO chief Zurab Pololikashvili told reporters, adding however that definitive figures would be published in the spring.

He did not give any details about the United States, nor did he explain why Spain took the second spot despite a terror attack in August and a highly mediatised independence crisis in tourism magnet Catalonia.

John Kester, head of tourism trends at the UN agency, added that "everything indicates" that France would retain its top spot in 2017 -- a good year for the industry as the number of global tourists leapt seven percent on 2016, the biggest increase in seven years.

Europe was the star of the show as it attracted a large number of visitors, up eight percent from the previous year, lured in particular by the Mediterranean's sea and sun.

This contrasts sharply with 2016 figures that saw security fears hit visitor arrivals in Europe.

"We do see that demand for European destinations has been very strong," said Kester.

"We also see important recovery in France," he added, without giving further details about a country that was hard hit by extremist attacks.

Spain also suffered a deadly jihadist attack in August in Catalonia, the same region whose leaders tried unsuccessfully to break away from Spain, triggering a major crisis that shook Europe.

And while the political crisis sparked a drop in visitor numbers to the northeastern region, it does not appear to have dented overall tourist figures for Spain in 2017.

In 2016, Spain welcomed 75.3 million visitors, just behind the United States with 75.6 million, while France -- despite its own terror woes -- easily remained the world leader with 82.6 million visitors, according to the UNWTO.

Spain is set to replace the US as the world's second tourism destination while France has retained the top spot the UN World Tourism Organization says https://t.co/2PINqZNtx3 pic.twitter.com/D4SRqXUEKU

— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 15, 2018

First global pact backing indigenous land rights launched

MSN – AFP, Marlowe HOOD, 3 October 2017

Provided by AFP Brazilian natives demonstrate in front of the Planalto Palace in
Brasilia, during the National Mobilization Week to protest and demand their rights, in 2015

Native peoples struggling to retain or regain stewardship of forests that sustained them for countless generations may finally have backing from an organisation with both swag and sway.

The International Land and Forest Tenure Facility -- the first and only global institution dedicated to securing the land rights of indigenous communities worldwide -- was formally launched in Stockholm on Tuesday.

Funded by Sweden, Norway and the Ford Foundation, a major US philanthropy, the Tenure Facility has already provided grants and guidance for pilot projects in Peru, Mali, and Indonesia, helping local communities leverage rarely enforced laws to protect their land and resources.

Disputes over land rights in tropical forests teeming with exploitable resources -- from hard woods to precious stones to oil -- can quickly escalate into deadly conflict, and local peoples more often than not wind up on the losing end.

More than 200 environmental campaigners, nearly half from indigenous tribes, were murdered around the world in 2016 alone, according to watchdog NGO Global Witness.

Restoring some measure of control to the original inhabitants of forests appropriated by corrupt governments or extraction industries has also proven an effective bulkhead against global warming, according to a 2014 global survey by the US-based World Resources Institute, a think tank.

In Brazil, for example, deforestation in indigenous community forests from 2000 to 2012 was less than 1 percent, compared with 7 percent outside those areas.

'Unrelenting conflicts'

Provided by AFP Representatives of indigenous communities and activists protest
in front of the Chinese Embassy in Lima, Peru, on September 22, 2017, to support the
Achuar, Kichwa and Quechua Amazonic tribes affected by oil industry activities on their
ancestral lands

Tropical vegetation soaks up planet-warming CO2 emitted by the burning of fossil fuels.

Destroying these forests outright not only reduces the area available to absorb carbon dioxide, it also releases CO2 into the atmosphere, accounting in recent decades -- along with agriculture and livestock -- for more than a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions.

"We see climate change and inequality as two of the greatest existential threats facing the planet," said Ford Foundation president Darren Walker.

"Creating mechanisms that allow indigenous peoples and local communities to gain tenure over their land or forests is a way to tackle both these problems," he told AFP ahead of a conference keyed to the launch.

Walker has pledged five million dollars, and expects -- based on other grants in the pipeline -- the facility to have 100 million within a year.

The project aims over the span of a decade to boost forestland properly titled to indigenous peoples by 40 million hectares, an area twice the size of Spain.

Such efforts, they calculate, would prevent deforestation of one million hectares and the release of 500 million tonnes of CO2, more than the annual emissions of Britain or Brazil.

"The Tenure Facility provides a powerful solution to save the world's forests from the ground up," said Carin Jamtin, director general of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, a key funder.

Corruption and abuses

More than two billion people live on and manage half the world's land area in customary or traditional systems, yet indigenous communities have formal legal ownership of only 10 percent.

And even where they do have title, corruption and abuses have led to protracted conflicts with local and national governments, companies and migrant workers.

Native populations can even run afoul of major green initiatives to fight climate change or stem biodiversity loss.

A controversial UN-backed programme, for example, known as REDD+ -- Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation -- creates incentives to keep forests intact, paid for by rich nations or companies seeking to offset pollution under carbon trading schemes.

But the projects that REDD+ finances can push aside the needs and rights of indigenous peoples who are often most directly affected by the changes set in motion, critics say.

A peer-reviewed 2013 study -- one of the few to examine the impacts on local communities -- concluded that less than half of 50-odd projects in Africa, Latin America and Asia did anything to alleviate the poverty of forest-dependent peoples.

But many did enhance their land tenure rights, they concluded.

Related Article:

Brazil scraps bid to mine Amazon natural reserve

Indonesia Rejects UN Recommendation to Abolish Death Penalty

Jakarta Globe, Sheany  September 25, 2017

Indonesia on Thursday (21/09) accepted 167 of the 225 recommendations it
 received from international delegations during the 27th session of the United
Nations Universal Periodic Review, or UPR, earlier in May, but crucially rejected
a recommendation to abolish the death penalty. (Photo courtesy of Foreign
Affairs Ministry)

Jakarta. Indonesia on Thursday (21/09) accepted 167 of the 225 recommendations it received from international delegations during the 27th session of the United Nations Universal Periodic Review, or UPR, earlier in May, but crucially rejected the recommendation to abolish the death penalty.

Indonesia said the remaining 58 recommendations, including ones on abolishing the death penalty, addressing past human rights violations and ending prosecutions under blasphemy laws, "were noted" but considered "not in line with the priorities in Indonesia’s human rights agenda."

Indonesia went through its third UPR cycle in May, and had straight away accepted 150 recommendations put forward by 101 delegations during the review while placing the remaining 75 under further examination.

Indonesia stated its final position on the pending recommendations during the 36th session of the Human Rights Council last week.

During the session, Indonesia reaffirmed its position that "the death penalty is still a prevailing positive law in Indonesia."

"However, the revision of the penal code had provided a more robust safeguard in due process of law on the death penalty," Indonesia's deputy permanent representative to the UN office in Geneva, Michael Tene, said.

The United Kingdom said it "regretted that the recommendations on the moratorium on the use of the death penalty had not been supported" and repeated its call that no evidence suggests death penalty is a more effective deterrent than alternative forms of punishment.

Other delegations in the session also expressed concerns that the Indonesian government had not addressed discrimination against minority groups in the country, which include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons and followers of religious minorities.

"Indonesia took note of the remaining 58 recommendations with the consideration that they are not in line with the priorities in Indonesia’s human rights agenda. Some of the recommendations were also inaccurate and not based on facts," Michael said, according to a statement released by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) urged the Indonesian government nevertheless to take some measures to deal with the recommendations it did not accept, including "measures to eradicate impunity, prioritize the settlement of gross human rights violations, guarantee freedom of religion and belief, ensure freedom of expression and abolish the death penalty.”

Komnas HAM and Amnesty International also noted that Indonesia has yet to ratify several international human rights accords, including the Optional Protocol on the Convention Against Torture and Convention for the Protection of All Persons From Enforced Disappearance.

UN blasts 'disturbing' racism against Aborigines in Australia

Yahoo – AFP, April 3, 2017

UN blasts 'disturbing' racism against Aborigines in Australia

Sydney (AFP) - Racism against Aborigines in Australia is widespread and "deeply disturbing", a United Nations envoy said Monday, urging the government to work more closely with indigenous people.

UN special rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz has been on a 15-day visit at Canberra's invitation to check on progress made since the last such trip in 2009.

She said she found racism against the indigenous population widespread.

"As I have travelled across the country, I have found the prevalence of racism against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples deeply disturbing," she said.

"This manifests itself in different ways, ranging from public stereotyped portrayals of them as violent criminals, welfare profiteers and poor parents and to discrimination in the administration of justice."

During her tour, Tauli-Corpuz examined measures aimed at reducing indigenous disadvantage, jail conditions, land rights issues and violence against women.

Aborigines -- who make up about three percent of the population of 24 million -- are among the most disadvantaged Australians.

In February an annual government report entitled "Closing the Gap" found that Australia was failing in its efforts to improve Aboriginal lives, with targets -- including cutting child mortality and raising life expectancy -- not being met.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull admitted at the time not enough progress had been made and committed more money to improve research and evaluate policies to improve the situation.

The UN rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples said in a statement there was a lack of government consultation with indigenous bodies working to support their own communities in public health, housing, education, and child protection.

She said the national representative body for the indigenous population -- the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples -- was "dismally disregarded by the government".

"While Australia has adopted numerous policies aiming to address Aboriginal and Torres Strait socio-economic disadvantage, the failure to respect the right to self-determination and the right to full and effective participation in these is alarming," she said.

"The compounded effect of these policies has contributed to the failure to deliver on the targets in the areas of health, education and employment in the Closing the Gap strategy."

Tauli-Corpuz said indigenous organisations "remain unfunded or have had funding radically cut" and urged Canberra to do more.

She highlighted escalating rates of youth suicide, and denounced as "simply astounding" the high levels of indigenous incarceration.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders make up 27 percent of the prison population, despite accounting for just three percent of the total population.

"Imprisonment is the end result of years of dispossession, discrimination and trauma faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders populations over the generations," said the envoy.

Calls Reemerge for Govt to Take Cultural Approach to Human Rights Issues in Papua

Jakarta Globe, Alin Almanar, October 06, 2016

Villagers of Mamit, a remote village located in mountainous area in Tolikara
district, Papua. (JG Photo/Donny Andhika Mononimbar)

Jakarta. Calls are reemerging for the Indonesian government to take a cultural approach in settling human rights issues in Papua following a concerted voice on the matter during a recent United Nations meeting.

Seven Pacific countries pushed for a resolution of alleged human rights abuses in Indonesia's eastern province during the 71st session of the UN General Assembly in New York two weeks ago. The allegations were rejected by the Indonesian government representative at the meeting.

The Indonesian government promised earlier this year to settle dozens of human rights abuse cases in Papua, but progress in the long-awaited resolution remains unclear. Indonesian Civil Society Circle director Ray Rangkuti said the move could be going nowhere with authorities having constantly taken a repressive approach in dealing with the issues.

"They would never be settled unless there is an assurance that Papuans would not be suppressed in exercising their freedom of expression," he said in Jakarta on Wednesday (05/10).

Rallies in support of the province's independence, which were held in various parts of Indonesia in recent months, have been repressed by authorities. The Free Papua Organization (OPM) has been mounting an insurgency for decades.

"That approach is unnecessary. Even though the issues raised are high-level, the threats are low-level in the context of security," Ray said. "The cycle of violence must be broken."

The OPM has complained that the central government has given resource-rich Papua an unfair share of state wealth after the province became part of Indonesia in 1969.

The administration of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has been developing several infrastructure projects to boost the economy in Papua, a move Indonesia suggested during the recent UN meeting.

Catholic priest and human rights advocate Benny Susetyo said the efforts would mean nothing to ease the situation in Papua if the government does not approach Papuans culturally.

"The approach needs dialogue and the government should have the willingness to do so, instead of seeing them as a threat," he said. "Physical development without a cultural approach would be useless."

Indonesia executes foreign convicts despite protests

Yahoo – AFP, Muhammad Azka, July 28, 2016

Indonesian men light candles during an anti-execution rally in front of the
presidential palace in Jakarta on July 28, 2016 (AFP Photo/Bay Ismoyo)

Cilacap (Indonesia) (AFP) - Indonesia Friday executed four drug convicts, three of them foreigners, by firing squad, an official said, drawing swift condemnation as Jakarta pushes on with its tough campaign of capital punishment.

Ten others expected to have faced the firing squad, including nationals from Pakistan, India and Zimbabwe as well as Indonesians, were not put to death but officials said they would be executed at a later stage.

Authorities did not give a reason for the reprieve, but the prison island where they were expected to be executed in outdoor clearings was hit by a major storm as the other sentences were carried out.

The executions, which saw an Indonesian and three Nigerians face the firing squad, were the first in the country since April last year when authorities put to death eight drug convicts, including two Australians.

President Joko Widodo has defended dramatically ramping up the use of capital punishment, saying that Indonesia is fighting a war on drugs and traffickers must be heavily punished.

Noor Rachmad, deputy attorney general for general crimes, said the latest executions were "done not in order to take lives but to stop evil intentions, and the evil act of drug trafficking".

He added that "the rest (of the executions) will be carried out in stages", saying that the timings had not yet been decided.

Amnesty International condemned the executions, with the group's Rafendi Djamin labelling them "a deplorable act".

"Any executions that are still to take place must be halted immediately. The injustice already done cannot be reversed, but there is still hope that it won't be compounded," he said.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the European Union had also voiced opposition to the plan in recent days.

Friday's executions, which happened at 12:45 am (1745 GMT Thursday), came after a day of frenetic activity, with distraught relatives travelling to Nusakambangan island to say farewells to their loved ones and ambulances carrying coffins over to the heavily guarded penal colony.

Relatives carry photographs of Pakistani national Zulfiqar Ali, who was 

sentenced to death in 2005 for heroin possession in Indonesia, during a 

protest in Lahore on July 28, 2016 (AFP Photo/Arif Ali)

Execution drive

The executed Indonesian was named as Freddy Budiman, while the three Nigerians were: Seck Osmane, Humphrey Jefferson Ejike Eleweke and Michael Titus Igweh.

Eleweke's lawyer, Afif Abdul Qoyim, told AFP the execution should not have gone ahead as his client this week filed a legal appeal.

"When this process in not respected, that means that this is no longer a country that upholds the law, nor human rights," he said.

Two people whose cases had raised high-profile international concern among rights groups were not executed.

The first was Pakistani Zulfiqar Ali, whom rights groups say was beaten into confessing to the crime of heroin possession, leading to his 2005 death sentence.

Syed Zahid Raza, the deputy Pakistani ambassador in Indonesia, hailed his reprieve as a victory and said it was due to diplomatic efforts in Jakarta and Islamabad.

The other was Indonesian woman Merri Utami, who was caught with heroin in her bag as she came through Jakarta airport and claims she was duped into becoming a drug mule.

At Cilacap, the city closest to Nusakambangan, family members were initially shocked to learn on Thursday morning their relatives would be executed in a matter of hours, having initially thought it would take place a day later.

Some distressed relatives protested their loved ones' innocence, while 10 women's rights activists rallying in support of Utami were detained.

It was the third batch of executions under Widodo, and means 18 drug convicts -- mostly foreigners -- have been put to death since he became leader in 2014.

His execution drive has shocked the international community and disappointed activists, particularly as hopes were high that Widodo, seen as a fresh face in a political world dominated by figures from Indonesia's authoritarian past, would improve the country's rights record.

'Implementation Day' for Iran nuclear deal as prisoners freed

Yahoo – AFP, Simon Sturdee with Arthur MacMillan in Tehran, January 16, 2016

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) and EU foreign policy chief
 Federica Mogherini hold a joint press conference during the E3/EU+3 and Iran talks
 at the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna on January 16,
2016 (AFP Photo/Joe Klamar)

Vienna (AFP) - The historic nuclear accord between Iran and major powers entered into force Saturday as the UN confirmed that Tehran has shrunk its atomic programme and as painful sanctions were lifted on the Islamic republic.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said its "inspectors on the ground verified that Iran has carried out all measures" agreed under the July 14 agreement.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, representing the six powers, said that as a result "multilateral and national economic and financial sanctions related to Iran's nuclear programme are lifted".

US Secretary of State John Kerry 

holds a press conference in Vienna 

on January 16, 2016 (AFP Photo/

Joe Klamar)

"All sides remain firmly convinced that this historic deal is both strong and fair, and that it meets the requirements of all," Mogherini said in Vienna in a joint statement with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

"This achievement clearly demonstrates that with political will, perseverance, and through multilateral diplomacy, we can solve the most difficult issues and find practical solutions that are effectively implemented," they said.

The so-called "Implementation Day" for the accord also followed news of a prisoner swap between Iran and the United States in another sign of thawing relations between the two foes since the July 14 agreement.

The steps taken by Iran, combined with ultra-close IAEA inspections, extend to at least a year -- from a few months previously -- how long Iran would need to make one nuclear bomb's worth of fissile material.

They include slashing by two-thirds its uranium centrifuges, reducing its stockpile of uranium -- enough before the deal for several bombs -- and removing the core of the Arak reactor which could have given Iran weapons-grade plutonium.

Iran has always denied wanting nuclear weapons, saying its activities are exclusively for peaceful purposes such as power generation.

In what was hailed as a momentous diplomatic breakthrough, the Vienna agreement was nailed down after two years of rollercoaster negotiations following the June 2013 election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

The highly complex deal drew a line under a standoff dating back to 2002 marked by failed diplomatic initiatives, ever-tighter sanctions, defiant nuclear expansion by Iran and threats of military action.

In addition it put Iran and the United States on the road to better relations some 35 years after the Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed shah, and at a particularly explosive time in the Middle East.

The four Iranian-American detainees to be freed by Iran included Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and Saeed Abedini, a pastor from Idaho, a senior US official said Saturday.

The others were Amir Hekmati and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, Washington said. A fifth American, identified as Matthew Trevitick, was also to be released as part of a different process.

In exchange Washington said it had granted clemency to seven Iranians, six of whom were dual US-Iranian citizens, and dropped charges against 14 more.

Daggers drawn

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.

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 in early January 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 Saudi Arabia's public finances under strain.

The lifting of sanctions on Iran is "going to put 500,000 barrels per day more on the market", said James Williams of WTRG Economics. Some analysts believe $20 oil is on the horizon.

Bumpy road

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.

FM #Steinmeier on #IranDeal #ImplementationDay: „Historic success for diplomacy.“ #IranTalks #JCPOA pic: archive pic.twitter.com/sB7W3PwoBn

— GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) January 16, 2016

#ImplementationDay--I thank God for this blessing & bow to the greatness of the patient nation of Iran. Congrats on this glorious victory!

— Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) January 16, 2016

"First, yesterday marked a milestone in preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon." —@POTUS #IranDeal https://t.co/YPpOVULMt2

— The Iran Deal (@TheIranDeal) January 17, 2016

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Iran's Rouhani says nuclear deal to bring peace
US to pay Iran $1.7 bn in debt and interest: Kerry

US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to journalists about his negotiations

 with Iran upon his arrival from Vienna at Joint Base Andrews on January 17,

2016 (AFP Photo/Kevin Lamarque)