If the Biden administration delisted the IRGC, it sends a signal to the world that America is ready to work with terrorists.
As a precondition to returning to the nuclear agreement, Iran had demanded that the United States remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.
The IRGC was designated a terror group in 2018, when President Donald Trump pulled out of the JCPOA, not least because of its role in fomenting chaos in the region.
The Trump administration made clear that any attempt to renegotiate the agreement would be predicated on IRGC’s commitment to refrain from destabilizing the region and to eliminate its proxy network.
Though publicly rejecting the Iranian demand, unconfirmed reports indicate that the Biden administration is willing to compromise and remove the IRGC from the FTO blacklist while keeping the Quds Force – the Guards’ foreign terror unit – on the list.
Keeping the Quds Force only on the blacklist flies in the face of reality and would have profound security implications.
First, it is imperative to note that the IRGC and Quds Force are inseparable and intertwined organizations, and the distinction between them is misleading. delisted
When the Revolutionary Guards was formed on May 5, 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini tasked them with safeguarding the Islamic Revolution’s achievements, defending the regime against internal and external threats, and spreading the revolution to the region in what would become the “Axis of Resistance” movement.
To accomplish the goal of spreading the revolution, the IRGC has set up several divisions, and offices, among them the Islamic Liberation Movements Unit, the Irregular Warfare Headquarters, the Lebanon Guard, and the Ramezan Headquarters tasked with engaging in foreign military operations.
In a 1990 organizational reform, the Quds Force replaced all these units and offices.
To make it more interrelated, several other branches were also added to the structure of the Revolutionary Guard.