Iran Nuclear Deal’s Final Hurdle Is Lifting Terrorism Sanctions on Revolutionary Guards

The effort to revive the 2015 nuclear deal agreement now hinges on perhaps the most politically sensitive issue in the negotiations: whether to remove the U.S. terrorism designation for Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, the country’s powerful security force, diplomats said.

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.

“Not only has Iran’s nuclear program advanced, but their behavior in the region and beyond has gotten more aggressive, including by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last week. “So the notion that the actions of the past administration pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal has cut down on the actions or the escalatory behavior of the [Guard] is inaccurate.”

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.

(The Wall Street Journal)