WASHINGTON: In a statement released on Christmas Eve, the US State Department listed restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba and signing a nuclear deal with Iran among its key foreign policy achievements this year.

In January, the United States and Cuba began talks to re-establish diplomatic relations after 54 years. In July, the US reopened its embassy in Havana and Cuba did the same in Washington.

When US Secretary of State John Kerry travelled to Havana to reopen the American embassy, he took with him three US Marines who had lowered the US flag half a century ago to watch it being raised again.

“The achievement is just the first step in strengthening our relationship with the Cuban people, and those links continue to deepen with each new development … we look forward to further deepening these ties in the new year,” the State Department said.

The US and Iran finalised a nuclear agreement, known formally as the “joint comprehensive plan of action”, in July.

After weeks of intense multilateral negotiations in Vienna, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany announced that they had reached an agreement with Iran, which would ensure that Tehran’s nuclear programme would be exclusively peaceful.

The statement included a message from Secretary Kerry saying that the agreement “will bring insight and accountability to Iran’s nuclear programme – not for a small number of years, but for the lifetime of that programme.”

In February, the White House hosted a summit on Countering Violent Extremism, bringing together foreign leaders and senior officials to consider how to counter violent extremism.

The State Department hoped that the offensive launched at the summit will “continue as more countries pledge resources to the anti-IS (Islamic State) effort and as citizens around the world increasingly reject IS’s misguided ideology.”

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2015