Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has issued a clarification after suggesting in an interview with Iranian television that Tehran could enter into a renewed nuclear deal without the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) being delisted as a terrorist organization by Washington.
In an interview on Saturday, Amir-Abdollahian said that one of the remaining issues in the nuclear talks in Vienna is the unilateral sanctions on individuals and entities that have been placed on Iran by the United States, specifically under the presidency of Donald Trump after he exited the nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2018. Iran and Western European countries are seeking to reduce Iran’s nuclear program to the JCPOA levels while removing Trump-era sanctions. Foreign Minister
Regarding the IRGC, which Trump sanctioned as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) in 2019, Amir-Abdollahian called it “the most important security and defense” organization in the country. He added that Iran has communicated its issue with sanctions on the IRGC to the Americans, likely with Europe as intermediaries given that Iranian and American officials are not meeting face-to-face at the talks.
Amir-Abdollahian said that IRGC officials have told him personally that if the negotiations reach a sticking point over the status of sanctions on the IRGC that the negotiators “should choose the interests of the country” and not allow that to become an obstacle. Many Iran observers viewed the comments as Amir-Abdollahian preparing the Iranian public for a compromise on the US delisting the IRGC from the FTO list.
After considerable public uproar, Amir-Abdollahian issued a statement on his Instagram page saying that some people had an “incorrect understanding” of his interview. He wrote that “the red lines will be fully observed.” He recommended that people watch the entire interview where he clarified that Iran would insist on its red lines. Amir-Abdollahian even finished the post.