Report — Iran Caves in on IRGC Terror List: Demands Sanctions Relief Instead

Iran will surrender its demand for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to be removed from Washington’s terrorism list, the Qatar-aligned Middle East Eye news site reported on Monday citing an Iranian source.

The demand comes in return for a relief in sanctions for the Khatam-al Anbiya Central Headquarters, the IRGC’s economic arm, the report said.

Amid pressure from Israel, the U.S. last month said it would not concede to Iran’s demand to remove the IRGC from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, effectively torpedoing talks in Vienna to revive the tattered nuclear deal.

Earlier this week, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that Tehran “needs to decide to drop issues that are extraneous to the JCPOA,” but did not explain what those issues are.

“We believe that if Iran makes this political decision, we’ll be in a position to conclude and to pursue a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA very swiftly,” he said.

Both Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial intelligence Brian Nelson over the weekend made similar statements to the effect that a return to the 2015 nuclear accord was still on the table.

“The Biden administration has been sincere and steadfast in pursuing a path of meaningful return to full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,” Blinken said in a statement. “Absent a deal, we will continue to use our sanctions authorities to limit exports of petroleum, petroleum products and petrochemical products from Iran.”

Nelson said: “The United States is pursuing the path of meaningful diplomacy to achieve a mutual return to compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The United States will continue to expose the networks Iran uses to conceal sanctions evasion activities.”

The White House announced on Thursday that it had sanctioned a network of Iranian petrochemical producers and front companies in China and the United Arab Emirates, over charges that the network had helped Tehran evade sanctions.

Iran is mulling a U.S. demand to state publicly that it will stay away from targeting senior American officials, Western media outlets reported, but doing so would put Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in an uncomfortable position after he has vowed on several occasions to avenge the assassination of Iranian officers.