US official: Iran’s IRGC won’t come off terror list, even if it torpedoes nuke deal

The Biden administration will not remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the US terror list even though it may be a dealbreaker for Tehran signing a revived nuclear deal, an unnamed US official has told The Washington Post.

The newspaper said that Washington does not plan to accept Tehran’s demand to remove the IRGC from the US Foreign Terrorist Organizations list as a condition for restoring the 2015 agreement, even if it meant putting the signing of the deal “in jeopardy.”

“The onus is on Iran as to whether we have a nuclear deal. The [US] president will stick to core principles. The Iranians know our views,” the unnamed official told the newspaper.

The newspaper noted that earlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed his belief that the IRGC was a terror group and said that he was “not overly optimistic” that a nuclear deal would be signed.

The report also noted that Washington is not walking away from negotiations, and that there was hope a compromise could still be found to allow the agreement to be signed. READ MORE