Biden will not remove IRGC from 'terrorist list': Politico

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A senior Western official revealed that US President Joe Biden has made his decision to keep Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) on Washington's "terrorist list", POLITICO reported.

The website cited another source familiar with the file as saying that Biden "conveyed his decision during an April 24 phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett," adding that the decision was conveyed "as absolutely final and that the window for Iranian concessions had closed."

Following the April 24 conversation, Bennett said, “I am sure that President Biden, who is a true friend of Israel and cares about its security, will not allow the IRGC to be removed from the list of terrorist organizations.”

It is noteworthy that in 2019, the then-US President Donald Trump's administration placed the IRGC on its “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” list as part of its “maximum pressure” policy on Iran after the US withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Since then, "Israel has long been among the most vocal foreign governments in opposing the removal of the Iranian military branch from the terrorism list and the continuation of the nuclear agreement," POLITICO mentioned.

Removing the IRGC off the US terror list, to Tehran, is a main condition for the restoration of the 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had also stressed that the lifting of some Iranian officials and IRGC figures from the US sanctions list is the most important thing discussed in the Vienna talks.

POLITICO pointed out that "in recent weeks, Biden administration officials have signaled they are increasingly less likely to even consider lifting the terrorist designation, especially as both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have warned against doing so."

A US official told POLITICO last month that “the U.S. position has been that unless Iran agrees to take certain steps to assuage security concerns beyond the JCPOA, Washington will not lift the terror designation, which itself is beyond the JCPOA.”

The official added that the Biden administration position would not change, “especially given ongoing threats by the IRGC against [Americans]," as per his claims.