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Report: Biden considering dropping IRGC terror organization designation

The Biden Administration is considering removing terrorism sanctions from the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as part of negotiations to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Barak Ravid reported for Axios.

According to Ravid, three Israeli officials and two US officials say that the Administration is considering the move in exchange for a commitment from Iran to de-escalate its spread of violence throughout the Middle East.

The US would monitor Iran’s compliance with its agreement to de-escalate and would retain the option to restore the designation if Iran is not found to be in compliance.

Former US President Donald Trump officially designated the IRGC a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2019, imposing sanctions on the group.

The IRGC has been linked to numerous terrorist attacks around the globe, including the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia and an attempt to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US on American soil. It provides arms and training to terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen.

According to the report, the deal to remove the terrorist organization designation would be a separate understanding from the renegotiated nuclear deal and not part of the nuclear deal itself as Tehran had previously sought.

Removing the IRGC’s terrorist organization designation would be controversial even in US President Joe Biden’s own Democratic party.

The IRGC claimed responsibility for a missile attack near the US consulate in the Iraqi town of Erbil over the weekend.

Israel has spoken out against the details of the new nuclear deal being negotiated in Vienna, arguing that the deal’s sunset provisions would allow Iran to become a nuclear threshold state in the coming years and that the deal would give Iran tens of billions of dollars Iran would use to sow chaos throughout the Middle East and across the globe.

Source: Arutz Sheva