Washington gave Tehran a nice gift for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year: The U.S. Treasury's sanctions office issued a general license early Thursday authorizing academic exchanges between the U.S. and Iran.

Under General License G, issued by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. academic institutions can enter student-exchange agreements with Iranian universities, and provide scholarships to Iranian students seeking to study in the U.S. In addition, Iranian students can participate in online courses and Iranians can take university entrance and professional certification exams.

The license also authorized U.S. depository institutions to process transactions for academic exchanges between the two countries. But Erich Ferrari, principal of the firm Ferrari & Associates PC, said in a post at Lobe Log that other existing sanctions programs on Iran, such as the ones governing payment channels, will give U.S. companies and individuals pause before engaging Iranian students under the general license.

"It remains to be seen if the sanctions relief offered thus far by the U.S. following the interim deal reached in Geneva is an adequate solution to allow this authorization to have maximum impact, or if further action will be needed by OFAC in order to achieve such [a] result," he wrote.