The Day of Days has arrived.  Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif announced that decades of sanctions will be lifted today once the IAEA issues its report confirming that Iran has upheld its responsibilities to dismantle parts of its nuclear program.

It is believed that the amount of cash that will become available to Iran will be well north of $100 billion.

Isn't this exciting?

Reuters:

Today with the release of the IAEA chief's report the nuclear deal will be implemented, after which a joint statement will be made to announce the beginning of the deal," Zarif was quoted as saying in Vienna by state news agency IRNA.

"Today is a good day for the Iranian people as sanctions will be lifted today," the ISNA agency quoted Zarif as saying.

Zarif is due to meet his U.S. counterpart John Kerry, the European Union's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, and IAEA chief Yukiya Amano later on Saturday. International journalists have been assembled at the IAEA headquarters in anticipation of an announcement.

"Implementation day" of the nuclear deal agreed last year marks the biggest re-entry of a former pariah state onto the global economic stage since the end of the Cold War, and a turning point in the hostility between Iran and the United States that has shaped the Middle East since 1979.

The author of this tripe, Shadia Nasralla, obviously just woke up from a three-day bender.  Perhaps he should have asked Iran about a "turning point in the hostility" between the two nations after they seized our sailors and humiliated the U.S.  But then, maybe he believes that that act of war was a sign of how friendly the Iranians are.

For Iran, it marks a crowning achievement for Rouhani, a pragmatic cleric elected in 2013 in a landslide on a promise to reduce Iran's international isolation. He was granted the authority to negotiate the deal by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an arch conservative in power since 1989.

The U.S.-educated, fluent English-speaking Zarif has emerged as the smiling face of Iran's diplomacy, developing a close rapport with Kerry in unprecedented face-to-face talks. Zarif has chipped away at Iran's image as a pariah state, to the dismay of hardliners in Tehran as well as regional rivals.

"There are some people who see peace as a threat, who were always against (the nuclear deal) and will continue to oppose it," he was quoted as saying by ISNA.

The prospect of Iran's emergence from isolation could overturn the geo-political balance of the Middle East at a particularly volatile time.

Iran is the pre-eminent Shi'ite Muslim power, and its allies are fighting proxy wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen against allies of its main Sunni Muslim regional rival, Saudi Arabia.

In Iraq in particular, Tehran has found itself on the same side as the United States, supporting a Shi'ite-led government against Sunni militants of Islamic State.

Zarif has argued, including in an Op-Ed column in last week's New York Times, that Iran could be a partner for the West fighting Sunni Muslim militants, who he said are spurred on by policies adopted by Saudi Arabia.

"It's now time for all — especially Muslim nations — to join hands and rid the world of violent extremism. Iran is ready," Zarif tweeted on Saturday.

Iran is ready for what?  To continue to support the Shia militias in Iraq who are slaughtering Sunnis?  Or the Houthis in Yemen who are trying to overturn an elected government?  Or to continue to use their proxy terrorist army Hezb'allah to advance Iranian interests in Syria?

If Iran was bold enough to conduct illegal missile tests, fire rockets near our ships, and seize two American boats and hold our sailors at gunpoint, how bold do you think it's going to be once it gets its hands on $100 billion?