Tehran, January 23, The Iran Project – Implementation of JCPOA by Iran and 5+1 powers last week lifted some long-awaited Western sanctions against Iran. The development was coincided with the Iran-US prisoner swap and releasing of several US-Iranian prisoners.

On the sidelines of the final talks on JCPOA implementation, Iran and the United States also negotiated, reaching agreement over quite older issues such as the return of money paid by Pahlavi government for American undelivered weapons.

There are other numerous cases existing in the bilateral relationship, either larger or smaller than the nuclear issue. The mentioned cases have enough capacity to put the recent ceasefire between two countries in serious danger. Other external threats like the joint efforts by the Arab countries and Israel to constraint the nuclear deal and the Iran-US ceasefire should be taken into account, as well.

Iran-US relations: Long story from conflict to ceasefire

The regional and global rivalries of Tehran and Washington on one hand, and their ideological confrontation on the other hand, culminated two countries' cold war during the past years. Iran put US spies in prison after nullifying the espionage efforts and at the same time US severely penalized any suspected being accused of violating the sanctions against Iran.

In some cases even other foreign citizens who were affiliated with either of the sides were victimized by the hostilities. The number of prisoners associated with Iran in the US prisons, however, has been higher than the ones in Iran's custody.

Now, the implementation of JCPOA and removal of the sanctions has provided both sides the chance to shift substantially from struggle to ceasefire. The development in the JCPOA implementation day signals that two sides have already put the tough phase behind, albeit there are still disputes left to be settled.

There was time that two sides were seizing all opportunities to attack each other through traps to infiltrate into each others' soil. The case of Amir Hekmati, one of the newly released prisoners by Iran is one example of these reciprocal enmities which now seems to ebb as two sides are willing to establish ceasefire.

Do Iran, US make peace?

This is the question that certain groups frequently asked themselves. Iran neighboring countries and particularly Arabs which have been heavily benefited from Iran-US severing of ties, Israeli regime that sees the peace a serious threat, American extremists who find the compromise equals to US conversion to communism during the cold war and at last the Iranian principalists who consider it a chance for the enemy to overthrow Iran's government are all who curious to know the answer.

The truth is that what seems to be needed in the process of making peace between two countries is something other than ceasefire. This is the US shift in behavior which moderates the internal sharp criticism of the peace in Iran, paving the way for raising it more publicly.

As Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei has repeatedly underlined, the US officials either show least willing in alteration of behaviors or they turn out to be hypocrites.

Even Iranian moderates are aware of the US intention to change Iran's behavior. Comparing the experience of the countries that made peace with the US and those who resisted against it, proves the leader's true vision that the peace between two countries is yet to be feasible due to the White House approaches.

Once the Washington seriously revises the old policies, the proposal for peace might get a chance to show up. Otherwise, there would be no prospect for such incident due to the US insistence on the same old attitudes toward Iran even after the nuclear deal.