Iran says US will delist IRGC, lift sanctions on Khamenei, Raisi if nuke deal revived

Iranian missiles are seen at a new missile city of IRGC naval unit at an undisclosed location in Iran, in this picture obtained on March 15, 2021. (Reuters)
Iranian missiles are seen at a new “missile city” of IRGC naval unit at an undisclosed location in Iran, in this picture obtained on March 15, 2021. (Reuters)
Iran nuclear deal
Iran says US will delist IRGC, lift sanctions on Khamenei, Raisi if nuke deal revived
United States Of America
Iran
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Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya English
Published: 13 July ,2021: 10:52 AM GST
Updated: 13 July ,2021: 06:59 PM GST
The United States will delist Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and lift sanctions on the country’s supreme leader and members of his inner circle if the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers is restored, the Iranian foreign ministry said on Monday.

In its quarterly report to the parliament on the state of the nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign ministry said if negotiators in Vienna reach an agreement to revive the deal, the US will revoke the designation of the IRGC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) as well as revoke Executive Order 13876, under which the previous administration imposed sanctions on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, his office and appointees. This includes President-elect Ebrahim Raisi, who will take office on August 5.

The US and Iran have engaged in indirect talks in Vienna since April to revive the deal, which Washington withdrew from under former President Donald Trump in 2018. The last round of talks took place on June 20, and it is not yet clear when the talks will resume.

US State Department Spokesman Ned Price said on Monday that Washington would not impose a deadline for a seventh round of talks, adding that only Tehran could determine when the talks will resume.

According to the Iranian foreign ministry’s report, which was published on its website on Monday, if an agreement to revive the deal is reached in Vienna, the US would also remove sanctions on “more than a thousand individuals and entities,” including “all banks and financial institutions, except one, all insurance companies, all Iranian oil and petrochemical companies and refineries … and the Atomic Energy Organization and its affiliated companies and research institutes.”

In return, Iran would return to compliance with the deal, but only “after the verification of the lifting of sanctions.”

Khamenei, who has the final say over state affairs in Iran, had said in February Iran would return to its commitments under the deal only after the removal of all sanctions and its “verification” by Tehran.

The US has not commented on the Iranian foreign ministry’s report.