Atlantic Council Board Director Nicholas Burns writes for the New York Times on the implementation of the nuclear deal and prisoner exchange with Iran, and what these events mean for the future of relations between the United States and Iran:
The dramatic events of this past weekend mark a potential turning point in the modern history of the Middle East. Estranged for the last three and a half decades, the American and Iranian governments are talking and working with each other once again.
The implementation of the nuclear deal and the lifting of sanctions onIran, as well as the prisoner exchange, combined to make it a rare, hopeful day for Washington and Tehran. But Iran remains a powerful adversary of America across nearly all the conflicts of the Middle East. President Obama and his successor in the White House will be tested by whether they can find the right balance between cooperation on nuclear issues and containment of Iranian aggression.