Hours after the sanctions were officially lifted - and before the administration announced that some would stay in place - Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said that his country "has opened a new chapter" in its relations with the world.

Under the agreement, Iran moved nearly all of its nuclear fuel out of the country, destroyed and removed its nuclear equipment and gave global inspectors greater access to its nuclear facilities.

"Implementation Day" was declared in Geneva on Saturday. "After more than a decade, the race of sanctions against centrifuges, has finally ended", he says. Mr. Rouhani even commented on the United States.

The damaged relations between Iran and the Western states will improve in the post-sanction era, but the trend to normalize the ties, particularly with the United States, will be "gradual", Saeed Leylaz told Xinhua.

The United States also agreed to drop charges against 14 other Iranians whose extradition to the United States seemed unlikely, a USA official said. Western governments hailed the announcement as a milestone though some critics, including Israel, alleged that Tehran was still seeking to develop a nuclear weapon.

Even though the latest sanctions may make it seem as though the White House was going back on its word, "they are actually near comparable", notes the New York Times.

Many world leaders and politicians responded to the implementation of Iran's historic nuclear deal with world powers.

About resolving the three-decade old financial dispute with Iran, Obama said Tehran would be "returned its own funds, including appropriate interest, but much less than the amount Iran sought". A fifth American held in Iran, student Matthew Trevithick, was also released. USA crude-oil prices have trended down for a year and a half and fallen nearly 40 percent in three months.

"You are talking about actual people, not centrifuges", says Milani about the emotional reactions.

But there was also an olive branch to Iran's young and growing population. "Nobody has been defeated in the deal neither inside the country nor the countries that were negotiating with us", he said, referring to the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany. "We can confirm that our detained USA citizens have been released and that those who wished to depart Iran have left", a senior administration official said.

Meanwhile, the surprise release of five Americans held in Iran has helped a vulnerable Mr Obama put his political foes on the back foot. How do you see this moment unfolding in Iran?

Mr Rouhani said Iran should use the expected influx of money and investments following the end of sanctions to spark the "economic mutation" of the country, creating jobs and enhancing quality-of-life for Iranian citizens, after the country has suffered double-digit inflation and high unemployment rates for years.

The November anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran drew thousands of demonstrators, who burned American flags and hoisted signs denouncing McDonald's and Starbucks. The sailors' capture "could have sparked an worldwide incident", he said. "We said, 'No, and no, and no'". "Iran asked for a lot of people". "Iran was bad, but it was good at being bad". The nuclear deal achieves both aims. Republicans have denounced the outreach as a unsafe and undeserved concession to Iran. "Ultimately that did not advance America's interests", he said.

But not all news was good for Tehran: The U.S. on Sunday imposed new sanctions against 11 individuals and entities involved in Iran's ballistic missile program as a result of Tehran's firing of a medium-range ballistic missile in October.