Why IRGC issue won’t go away
Even if the US terrorist designation is not lifted, and there is agreement on the JCPOA, the IRGC will still be the power broker of Iranian domestic politics.
As Qatar’s foreign minister visited Tehran Wednesday in an effort to follow up on talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal, there’s no indication the sides have come close to a resolution on the issue of removing the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from the US terror list.
Top Qatari diplomat Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani’s visit this week came a week after Washington and Iran resumed “indirect discussions” — facilitated by the EU — in Doha to seek an agreement on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the formal name of the 2015 accord. As part of these efforts, European Union Policy Chief Josep Burrell was in Tehran June 24-25.
Negotiations had been held up since March, partly from Iran's insistence that the US de-list the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization — which the Biden administration has refused to do.
Islamic Republic officials insist that from Iran's perspective, the IRGC may no longer be the central issue, but holdups also have to do with the US guarantees that Washington will not withdraw from the deal, and the sequencing of sanctions relief.
