Tehran won’t insist on having its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps removed from the US sanctions list, CNN reports
CNN reported Friday that Iran had dropped its request for Washington to withdraw the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, (IRGC), from the US terror list. CNN cited a senior US official. This issue is a significant stumblingblock in negotiations to save the 2015 landmark nuclear agreement with Tehran.
According to the news network’s source, Iran did not include such a demand in its response to the “Final” text of the agreement, proposed by the EU on August 8, to revive the nuclear deal. “They are requesting that the current text be dropped.CNN spoke with the official.We are getting closer to making a deal.“
The official also indicated that Iran walked back on its demands to delist several companies with ties to the IRGC, the country’s elite military unit.
Biden’s administration insists that sanctions against the IRGC will not be lifted. High-profile US legislators and officials representing both sides opposed any attempt to lift restrictions on the military unit.
This designation, which was done under the former president Donald Trump in 2019, marked the first time that the US has designated a foreign government as an Foreign Terrorist Organization.
CNN’s source said that while reviving the Iran nuclear deal now seems “The outcome is still uncertain, even though it’s closer than two weeks ago.” as the sides have to reach an agreement on a number of other points.
Those include Iran’s reported insistence that the US should pay a fine if it unilaterally withdraws from the deal again, and the demand that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should drop its investigation into Tehran’s nuclear program.
A CNN source claims that the progress of negotiations may slow from this point forwards.
Earlier, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s representative at the negotiations, said that while talks on resuscitating the nuclear deal are drawing to an end, even the last few sentences may prove to be a stumbling block.
Last week, Politico reported that the EU was proposing to dilute US sanctions on the IRGC by allowing non-American entities, including Europeans, to do business with Iranians involved in “Transactions” with the IRGC in a way that would not trigger US sanctions. If the move was agreed on, this would enable almost unlimited EU trade with Iran.
The IRGC was founded after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution. It is responsible for protecting the Revolution’s principles and national security. The IRGC is a separate land, navy, air, missile and air force. It also has its own special elite-within-elite, the Quds force – an expeditionary branch tasked with operations abroad and unconventional warfare.
The initial nuclear deal signed in 2015 by Iran, the US, UK, France, and Germany – as well as Russia, China, and the EU – involved Tehran agreeing to certain restrictions on its nuclear industry in exchange for the easing of economic sanctions and other incentives.
However, the US, under the then-President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the deal, declaring it to be fundamentally flawed. Iran began to gradually reduce its obligations under the accord. For example, Iran’s production of enriched nuclear uranium. Iran could possibly be able to make an atomic weapon. According to the Iranian authorities, however, this “This is not the agenda.”
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