Page 9 - MEOG Week 16 2022
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MEOG                                     POLICY & SECURITY                                            MEOG


       Biden increasingly unlikely to




       remove IRGC terrorist designation




        IRAN             US President Joe Biden seems increasingly  goes beyond the JCPOA, they’ll need to address
                         determined to keep the “terrorist” designa-  concerns of ours that go beyond the JCPOA,” US
                         tion on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard  State Department spokesman Ned Price said this
                         Corps (IRGC), which Tehran is demanding be  week.
                         removed if it is to return to a deal on curbing its   Washington Post columnist David Ignatius
                         nuclear programme, AFP reported on April 20.  has reported that Biden was preparing to rule out
                           “Each side is just hoping that the other would  the IRGC’s removal from the blacklist. “I don’t
                         blink first,” Ali Vaez, an Iran expert from the  think the final decision has been taken yet, but
                         International Crisis Group, a conflict-prevention  the president is certainly leaning in that direc-
                         think tank, told the news agency.    tion,” the Crisis Group’s Vaez was further quoted
                           The matter of the designation – introduced  as saying by AFP.
                         by former US president Donald Trump in a   Vaez recognizes that any compromise
                         move that raised eyebrows as Washington had  worked out with Iran on such a sensitive issue
                         never before designated the armed forces of a  as the designation “would be used by the oppo-
                         sovereign nation in such a way – appears to have  nents and critics to crucify the Biden administra-
                         deadlocked the Vienna talks on reviving the  tion” by denouncing its weakness in the face of a
                         2015 nuclear deal, or JCPOA. The emissaries to  sworn enemy of the US.
                         the talks have not been in the Austrian capital   The IRGC back US foes including Hezbollah
                         since March 11.                      in Lebanon, the Yemeni Houthi rebels and some
                           However, a draft compromise to reinstate the  Iraqi militias.
                         JCPOA is still on the table, with the most difficult   “And that [response to a compromise] is the
                         issues already resolved, diplomats have briefed  political cost that I think the president is reluc-
                         media.                               tant to pay,” concluded Vaez, adding that a failure
                           Tehran contends that the IRGC designa-  to reach a deal to bring back the JCPOA would
                         tion was only made by Trump to add pressure  also result in a high political cost. “The Repub-
                         on Iran after the US exit from the JCPOA. The  licans [in that case] are bound to accuse him of
                         Americans argue it was in no way related to the  allowing Iran to become a virtual nuclear weap-
                         nuclear issue. “If Iran wants sanctions lifting that  ons state under his watch now,” he added.™












































       Week 16   20•April•2022                  www. NEWSBASE .com                                              P9
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