What terrorist delisting of Iran’s IRGC would mean for US interests, allies in Middle East

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Updated 24 March 2022
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What terrorist delisting of Iran’s IRGC would mean for US interests, allies in Middle East

  • Tehran reportedly pressing Biden team in Vienna to remove sanctions against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
  • Financial lifeline would enable IRGC to plunge vast new swathes of Middle East into chaos, conflict

WASHINGTON D.C.: US President Joe Biden’s administration is reportedly in the final stages of an attempt to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

Insiders claim that Tehran is insisting that Washington agree to remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from its Foreign Terrorist Organizations list.

The American negotiating team, led by Special Representative for Iran Rob Malley, believes that it can obtain the concessions and guarantees from the Iranian government necessary for preventing it from becoming a nuclear weapons threshold power.

Analysts think a nuclear-capable Iran would significantly empower the IRGC and likely supercharge its asymmetric-warfare campaign throughout the Middle East.




A woman holds up an illustration of a portrait of Qasem Soleimani during a memorial service marking the second anniversary of his death at a school in Beirut. (File/AFP)

Iran has reportedly been pressing the Biden team to agree to an almost total overhaul of not only economic sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear program, but those connected to terrorist activities specifically linked to the IRGC.

Sources report that one of Tehran’s conditions to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name of the nuclear deal, is the removal of the terrorist designation, which equates the IRGC with Daesh, and Al-Qaeda.

The Biden administration has not confirmed the leaks but has made clear it hopes to restore the JCPOA. But there are signs that it may acquiesce to Tehran’s demands.

Critics point to what they see as a serious flaw in the Biden administration’s strategic reasoning.




An Iranian missile launched during a joint military drill dubbed the ‘Great Prophet 17,’ in the southwest of Iran. (AFP/Iran's Revolutionary Guard via SEPAH NEWS)

Michael Doran, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told Arab News that the deal under consideration by the Biden administration would neither prevent Iran from eventually developing nuclear weapons nor dissuade the IRGC from conducting terror attacks against American and allied interests.

He said: “Biden officials and, before them, (former US President Barack) Obama officials promised us repeatedly that the nuclear deal would not prevent the United States from working to contain the IRGC on the ground in the Middle East.

“Clearly, the nuclear deal is about much more than nuclear weapons. It will remove all meaningful restrictions on Iran’s nuclear-weapons program, thus paving the way to Iran’s early acquisition of a nuclear bomb.”

The IRGC was founded as an ideological custodian of Iran’s 1979 revolution and entrusted with defending the Islamic Republic against internal and external threats. Its participation in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s led to the expansion of both its role and its might, making it Iran’s dominant military force, with its own army, navy, and air force and, later, its own intelligence wing.




A view of a damaged silo at the Saudi Aramco oil facility in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia after the Houthis launched a missile attack on the facility, triggering an explosion and a fire in a fuel tank. (File/AFP)

Over time, it gained an outsized role in executing Iran’s foreign policy and currently wields control over vast segments of the economy. The IRGC has proven to be a favored tool of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to launch plausibly deniable asymmetric attacks using cadres and their proxies who are indoctrinated and trained by Iranian operatives with decades of experience in such operations.

Unsurprisingly, the general consensus of analysts was that lifting both nuclear and terror-related sanctions would inevitably lead to a major cash infusion into IRGC coffers that could only be an incentive for expansion of the organization’s terror activities.

“The move allows people and companies connected to the IRGC to engage in business deals with foreign entities with less scrutiny and move money across the globe more easily,” Saeed Ghasseminejad, a senior adviser on Iran at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Arab News.

“This is in addition to tens of billions of dollars that become available to the regime after the deal, which benefits the IRGC as a key stakeholder of the Islamic fundamentalist regime in Tehran.

“Removing the IRGC from the terror list and lifting sanctions on companies connected to it boosts its financial resources, expands its operational capacity, and increases its political power and regional influence,” he said.

Tehran seems to have seized on signals from the Biden administration, which, while publicly claiming that the Vienna process will not be open-ended, has given Iran significant leeway in dragging out the nuclear negotiations in order to gain maximum leverage and concessions.




Iranian crude oil tanker Sabiti sails in the Red Sea. (File/AFP)

“Washington does not seem to be able to say no to Tehran because the Biden administration wants a nuclear deal almost at any price.

“The IRGC is a terrorist organization and has not changed its behavior or mission. What has changed is that Washington is desperate to reach a deal with the ayatollahs,” Ghasseminejad added.

The IRGC has been implicated in attacks against civilians since the 1980s. Its terror operations have, by most accounts, killed thousands of innocent foreigners, targeting Arabs, Israelis, Americans, and Europeans, from Argentina to Thailand.

Its proxies, particularly the Houthis in Yemen, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, actively threaten the Arab world, while building missile capabilities that threaten the very existence of Israel. And while the Biden administration has of late condemned indiscriminate Houthi missile attacks on civilian infrastructure and population centers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, there has been conspicuous silence in the matter of addressing the root of the problem.

Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against a Nuclear Iran, told Arab News that there were compelling national security reasons for keeping the IRGC on America’s Foreign Terrorist Organizations list.

“The FTO designation carries unique criminal and immigration prohibitions, and thus has a legal distinction that other counterterrorism designations, like Executive Order 13224 (issued by former US President George W. Bush in response to the 9/11 terror attacks in America), lack.




A view of an anti-aircraft missile launcher firing a salvo during a joint military exercise between the Iranian army and the IRGC. (File/AFP)

“Delisting the IRGC in exchange for a mere public commitment to de-escalation would set a troubling precedent as it risks cheapening the FTO list, which designates organizations due to their behavior,” Brodsky said.

He pointed out that the IRGC’s local branches in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen could not be disassociated from the resulting outcome of granting the organization what could be a game-changing strategic concession if approved by Biden.

Terror networks operating under separate names while belonging to a common ideological and operational umbrella overseen by the IRGC would not feel compelled by a nuclear deal to alter their behavior, he added.

“It also makes no sense to delist the mother ship from which manpower, money, and materiel flows — the IRGC — while including its satellites like Hezbollah on the FTO list.

“The (US) Department of State has already had a bad experience after it delisted the Houthis as an FTO, and it awkwardly has had to condemn every Houthi attack while trying to justify the decision. Delisting the IRGC as an FTO would be worse,” Brodsky said.

And he noted that the potential financial windfall resulting from the removal of terror sanctions would also play into internal power dynamics within the Iranian regime.




The IRGC take part in five-days military exercises in three Iranian provinces. (File/AFP)

“I would not underestimate the importance to Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi of the IRGC’s removal from the FTO list. He harbors ambitions beyond the presidency, specifically the supreme leadership, and he needs the IRGC’s support in that process. This may be one of the reasons why the Iranian establishment has made this a priority,” he added.

In reversing former US President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign, could the Biden team then be setting a precedent that might significantly weaken America’s standing and diplomatic influence in the Middle East?

Brodsky said: “In pressing for the IRGC’s removal as an FTO, Tehran is seeking a propaganda victory. Most importantly it sends a terrible message to US allies and partners in the region, with whom relations are already strained on a variety of issues.”

Biden’s predecessor took a decidedly different tack when it came to the question of how to react to threats emanating directly from IRGC plots. For instance, a decision such as the targeted killing in 2019 of the IRGC’s leader and most capable commander, Qassem Soleimani, in response to intelligence that he was preparing an attack on the US embassy in Baghdad, would be impossible to take were the proposed nuclear deal to go ahead.

Len Khodorkovsky, a former senior US State Department official, said the Biden team was making a fundamental negotiating error in not setting clear red lines for Iran.

“President Biden has decided to do whatever it takes to get back into the JCPOA. That desperation has been used by the Iranian regime to extract outlandish concessions. If you want to know what the IRGC will do after its delisting, just look at what the Houthis have done. Terrorists will always do what they do best — terrorize people,” Khodorkovsky added.

Put simply, if a nuclear deal is signed under the current conditions, Iran’s missiles would continue to threaten Jeddah, Abu Dhabi, Baghdad, Irbil, and Tel Aviv while its long terror arm will be thrown a financial lifeline that will enable it to plunge vast new swathes of the Middle East deeper into chaos and conflict.


Several hurt in anti-migrant unrest in Spanish town

Updated 8 sec ago
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Several hurt in anti-migrant unrest in Spanish town

MADRID: Several people were hurt in a second night of anti-migrant unrest in the Spanish town of Torre Pacheco after a pensioner was beaten up, authorities said on Sunday.
Despite a major police presence, groups armed with batons roamed the streets looking for foreign-origin people, regional newspaper La Opinion de Murcia reported.
The regional government did not say how many people were injured but stated that at least one person had been arrested for the violence.
The unrest erupted after a 68-year-old man told Spanish media he was beaten up in the street on Wednesday by three youths of North African origin.
The attack was filmed and put on social media.
The town hall organized a demonstration on Friday that was intended to be peaceful but where far-right elements shouted anti-migrant slogans.
One group, named “Deport Them Now,” posted a message on social media calling for attacks against people of North African origin.
Spanish authorities launched an appeal for calm on Sunday in the town of 36,000 people.
“Torre Pacheco must get back to normal,” said the head of the Murcian regional government Fernando Lopez Miras in a message on X.
“I understand the frustration but nothing justifies violence,” added the conservative politician.
“I call on residents to be calm, for tranquility,” said Torre Pacheco mayor, Pedro Angel Roca Ternel, on RTVE public television.
Spain’s Youth Minister Sira Rego, a member of the extreme left wing party Sumar, condemned the violence against migrants in a message on Bluesky, blaming the role of the “ultra-right” in the unrest.


Russia takes new village in Ukraine’s Donetsk region

Updated 44 min 25 sec ago
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Russia takes new village in Ukraine’s Donetsk region

  • Russian troops advance toward the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region
  • Russia’s defense ministry say troops had captured the village of Myrne

MOSCOW: Russia said on Sunday it took another village in the west of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, as its troops advance toward the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region.

Moscow’s offensive on Ukraine has lasted for more than three years, with attacks intensifying this summer and US-led negotiations so far yielding no results to end the fighting.

Russia’s defense ministry said Russian troops had captured the village of Myrne, calling the village by its Soviet name “Karl Marx.”

It lies close to the administrative border between the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

The ministry claimed forces had moved “deep into the enemy’s defense” to take the village.

Myrne was one of two villages Moscow claimed on Sunday.

Russia has for months refused a ceasefire proposed by the United States and Kyiv.

Moscow launched its full-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022.


France says Australia defense ties repaired after submarine row

Updated 56 min 35 sec ago
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France says Australia defense ties repaired after submarine row

  • Paris expressed its “strong regrets” when Australia tore up a multibillion-dollar deal to buy a fleet of diesel-powered submarines from France

SYDNEY: France’s defense relations with Australia have recovered after their 2021 bust-up over a major submarine contract, the country’s ambassador said Sunday.
Paris expressed its “strong regrets” when Australia tore up a multibillion-dollar deal to buy a fleet of diesel-powered submarines from France, Ambassador Pierre-Andre Imbert said.
Since the 2022 election of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, however, the defense relationship had been “restarted,” he said.
“Now, the first pillar of our cooperation is defense and security, so we have a very good level of cooperation,” the ambassador told AFP as French forces joined major military drills around Australia.
When Australia ditched the French deal, it opted instead to acquire nuclear-powered vessels in a new three-way AUKUS pact with the United States and Britain.
But a US defense official last month revealed that a review of AUKUS was underway to ensure it “aligned with the President’s America First agenda” and that the US defense industrial base was “meeting our needs.”
Under the AUKUS deal, Australia would acquire at least three Virginia class submarines from the United States within 15 years, eventually manufacturing its own subs.
The US Navy has 24 Virginia-class vessels but American shipyards are struggling to meet production targets set at two new boats each year.
Asked if France would ever consider discussing a new submarine deal with Australia if the AUKUS agreement was torpedoed by the review, the French ambassador said he was reluctant to speculate.
“I would say it’s more an issue for Australia for the moment. And of course, we are always discussing with our friends of Australia,” he said.
“But for the moment, they have chosen AUKUS,” he said. “If this changes (and) they ask, we’ll see.”
More than 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations are set to join the three-week, annual Talisman Sabre military exercises, which started Sunday across Australia and Papua New Guinea.


Australia PM Albanese kicks off China visit focused on trade

Updated 13 July 2025
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Australia PM Albanese kicks off China visit focused on trade

  • Anthony Albanese is set to meet business, tourism and sport representatives in Shanghai and Chengdu
  • Albanese wants to reduce Australia’s economic dependence on China, a free trade partner

BEIJING: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese kicked off a visit to China this weekend meant to shore up trade relations between the two countries.

Albanese met with Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Jining on Sunday, the first in a series of high-level exchanges that will include meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang and Chairman Zhao Leji of the National People’s Congress.

Albanese is leading “a very large business delegation” to China, which speaks to the importance of the economic relations between Australia and China, he told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN upon his arrival in Shanghai Saturday.

During a weeklong trip, Albanese is set to meet business, tourism and sport representatives in Shanghai and Chengdu including a CEO roundtable Tuesday in Beijing, his office said.

It is Albanese’s second visit to China since his center-left Labour Party government was first elected in 2022. The party was reelected in May with an increased majority.

Albanese has managed to persuade Beijing to remove a series of official and unofficial trade barriers introduced under the previous conservative government that cost Australian exporters more than 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion) a year.

Beijing severed communications with the previous administration over issues including Australia’s calls for an independent inquiry into the origins of and responses to COVID-19. But Albanese wants to reduce Australia’s economic dependence on China, a free trade partner.

“My government has worked very hard to diversify trade … and to increase our relationships with other countries in the region, including India and Indonesia and the ASEAN countries,” Albanese said before his visit, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

“But the relationship with China is an important one, as is our relationships when it comes to exports with the north Asian economies of South Korea and Japan,” he added.

Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency, in an editorial Sunday, described China’s relationship with Australia as “steadily improving” and undergoing “fresh momentum.”

“There are no fundamental conflicts of interest between China and Australia,” the editorial stated. “By managing differences through mutual respect and focusing on shared interests, the two sides can achieve common prosperity and benefit.”


Apartment fire in Turkiye’s Ankara kills 3, including a baby

Updated 13 July 2025
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Apartment fire in Turkiye’s Ankara kills 3, including a baby

  • The blaze started late Saturday night on the fourth floor and spread rapidly, according to local media
  • Firefighters took four hours to extinguish the flames. The state-run Anadolu Agency reported that 39 suffered light smoke inhalation, including seven firefighters

Istanbul: A fire at a 26-story apartment building in the Turkish capital, Ankara, killed three people, including a three-and-a-half-month-old baby, local media said.
The blaze broke out at around 10:00 p.m. local time Saturday night on the fourth floor and quickly spread through the structure, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. It took firefighters four hours to put out the fire.
The agency also reported that 39 suffered light smoke inhalation, including seven firefighters. Paramedics attended to 26 people on site, while 20 others have been hospitalized, one in critical condition.