Iran Nuclear Deal Hinges on Taking Terrorist Organization Off the List of Terrorist Organizations

A new nuclear agreement with Iran now hinges on whether the Biden administration and Western Europe will remove a terrorist organization from the official list of terrorist organizations. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was designated a terrorist group in 2017 by the Trump administration. They are accused of several terrorist attacks in recent history, as well as using proxy forces to kill Americans. And their rogue Quds Force unit is responsible for dozens of assassinations of dissidents on foreign soil.

But the imperatives of domestic politics require that they be removed from the terror list so Iran’s feelings won’t be hurt anymore.

Wall Street Journal:

The issue is galvanizing opposition to the nuclear deal in Washington and among Middle East allies such as Israel, where the government issued stinging public criticism of any attempt to remove the terrorism designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Senior U.S. officials say a failure to find a compromise with Iran on the issue quickly could cause a breakdown in negotiations that—over almost a year—have resolved nearly every other disagreement.

The U.S. has accused the Guard of killing hundreds of Americans, while its elite Quds Force has arranged weapons and support for proxy forces throughout the region and for pro-Iranian groups that fought in Syria. The Guard has long faced U.S. sanctions for its ballistic-missiles programs and alleged human-rights violations and was placed on the counterterror sanctions list in 2017.

The Biden administration is blaming Trump for walking out of the deal and speeding Iran’s progress toward the ability to construct a nuclear bomb. But the 2015 deal that Trump walked out on was full of holes and wasn’t stopping Iran’s drive for the bomb, nor did it slow down the Iranian development of ballistic missiles. It was fatally flawed from the outset — especially after Iran “reinterpreted” the agreement in ways that made Barack Obama look foolish.

Lifting the terror designation on the Revolutionary Guard would do Israel no favors.

Iran has wanted the Biden administration to lift terrorism, human-rights and other sanctions on it that aren’t related to its nuclear program. U.S. allies in the region, who are already nervous about a nuclear deal that doesn’t permanently constrain Iran’s nuclear work, fear that if Washington lifts the terror sanctions on the Guard, it will embolden Iran-backed proxies, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

“We are very concerned about the United States’ intention to give in to Iran’s outrageous demand and remove the IRGC from the list of terrorist organizations,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday, adding that Washington seemed willing to agree to a deal with Iran “at almost any cost.”

Many in Washington are making the argument that the economic impact of keeping the Guard on the terrorist list is negligible. That may be true. But there are also penalties for companies doing business with a terrorist group and maintaining the listing is a necessary deterrent to prevent any entity from profiting from the Revolutionary Guard’s criminal actions.