Iran has abandoned a “red line” stipulation that was holding up the revival of a nuclear deal with the EU, the U.S. and other world powers, CNN reported.
Tehran did not demand in its response to a proposed agreement drafted by the EU that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) be removed from a U.S. list of terrorist organizations, the news agency reported late Friday, citing a senior Biden administration official. Former President Donald Trump put the Guard on the list in 2019, after pulling out of the last nuclear accord — an action that imposed numerous sanctions on the military group.
“The current version of the text, and what they are demanding, drops it,” the senior administration official told CNN. “So, if we are closer to a deal, that’s why.”
President Joe Biden in April took a final decision to keep the IRGC on the blacklist, after a call with Israel’s prime minister. “The president has been firm and consistent that he will not lift the terrorism designation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps,” the senior official said, according to CNN.
The EU proposal, of which POLITICO reviewed excerpts, would soften the blow of sanctions on the IRGC.
Under the proposed text, Europeans and other non-Americans could conduct business with Iranian entities engaged in “transactions” with the IRGC without fear of triggering U.S. sanctions, provided that their primary business partner was not on a U.S. sanctions registry.