International sanctions on Iran were lifted yesterday when the United Nations nuclear agency declared that Tehran has complied with an agreement to scale back its nuclear programme. "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. Sanctions on Iran had cut off a nation of nearly 80 million from the global financial system, drastically reduced the exports of a major oil producer and imposed severe economic hardship on ordinary Iranians