According to Politico, excerpts from a leaked copy of the agreement imply that it would soften American sanctions on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards while allowing Tehran to escape further scrutiny of its suspected nuclear facilities. Though it is nominally an EU initiative, European officials have worked closely with the US team in the discussions, and the suggested parameters are thought to receive Washington’s approval.
The plan seemed to indicate President Joe Biden’s readiness to make considerable concessions, particularly with respect to the Revolutionary Guard, which the United States has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. Iran has already reacted positively to the agreement, although it comes amid alarming murder plots that seem to be inspired by Tehran.
An suspected Iranian sympathizer attacked novelist Salman Rushdie in New York on Friday, while a Revolutionary Guard member was indicted this week with conspiring to kill former US officials.
Biden assumed office two years ago promising to resurrect the now-defunct nuclear agreement, technically known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which limited Iran’s nuclear development in return for sanctions relief.
Trump withdrew from the pact in 2018 and pledged to negotiate a better deal, but he departed office without accomplishing that aim.
Following Politico’s publication on the new EU proposal’s wording, Biden’s Special Envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, tweeted angrily that the US will not compromise its criteria for executing sanctions.
‘To be clear, we have not participated in any negotiations concerning modifying due diligence, know-your-customer, or other US sanctions compliance rules for penalties that would remain subject to a mutual return to full JCPOA implementation,’ he wrote.
‘Any claim to the contrary is completely false,’ Malley said.
According to Politico, the EU plan would enable Europeans and other non-Americans to do business with Iranian businesses involved in “transactions” with the Revolutionary Guard without risk of US penalties.
Currently, such transactions would result in US sanctions, which are meant to punish and isolate the Revolutionary Guard.
‘Non-US persons doing business with Iranian persons who are not on the [US sanctions list] will not be subject to sanctions simply because those Iranian persons engage in separate transactions involving Iranian persons on the [US sanctions list] (including Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its officials, or its subsidiaries or affiliates),’ according to the EU proposal.
According to the official news agency IRNA, a top Iranian ambassador has already said that the EU accord “may be acceptable provided it delivers guarantees” on Tehran’s core objectives.
Shahram Poursafi, an Iranian official, is suspected of masterminding conspiracies to murder John Bolton and Mike Pompeo +10.
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Shahram Poursafi, an Iranian diplomat, is accused of masterminding conspiracies to kill John Bolton and Mike Pompeo.
According to IRNA, an anonymous Iranian official said Tehran was examining the idea. ‘Proposals from the EU may be acceptable provided they give Iran with assurances on safeguards, sanctions, and guarantees,’ added the diplomat.
The Islamic Republic has requested assurances that no future US president would breach the agreement, as Trump did in 2018.
However, since the agreement is a political understanding rather than a legally binding treaty, Biden cannot give such unequivocal commitments.
According to Iranian state TV, a leading Shi’ite Muslim cleric said in a sermon during Friday prayers that Tehran insisted on securing verifiable assurances that US sanctions will be withdrawn under a resurrected agreement.
‘We insist on having the required assurances, sanctions removed, and verification, and if this is done, then our negotiation team will inform the people that sanctions have been withdrawn owing to your resistance and strength,’ Kazem Seddiqi said during Friday prayers in Tehran, according to state TV.
Washington has said that it is willing to negotiate an agreement fast to revive the pact based on the EU suggestions.
Following deliberations in Tehran, Iranian officials said they will transmit their ‘new ideas and thoughts’ to the EU, which coordinates the negotiations.
Prosecutors claim that Shahram Poursafi offered $300,000 to unnamed “criminal elements” in the United States to carry out the contract murder of Bolton.
A senior EU official said that no more modifications to the text, which has been negotiated for 15 months, could be made. He predicted that the parties will reach a final resolution in a “very, very few weeks.”
The 2015 agreement seemed to be on the verge of being resurrected in March. In exchange for relief from US, EU, and UN sanctions, Iran agreed to curtail its controversial uranium enrichment program, which might lead to nuclear weapons.
However, 11 months of indirect discussions in Vienna between Tehran and the Biden administration were thrown into chaos, mostly due to Iran’s demand on Washington removing its elite Revolutionary Guards Corps off the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
The US accused a Revolutionary Guards member on Wednesday with conspiring to assassinate John Bolton, Trump’s national security advisor, while Washington maintained the allegations would not disrupt the nuclear negotiations with Iran.
Prosecutors claim Shahram Poursafi offered $300,000 to unnamed “criminal entities” in the United States to carry out the contract murder.
According to the government, the purported plot was likely devised in retribution for the US execution of senior Guards commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in January 2020.
The DOJ said that Poursafi was willing to pay $1 million for a second ‘job,’ but did not name the second target in the conspiracy.
According to Morgan Ortagus, who worked as State Department spokesman during Trump’s term, Mike Pompeo was the second target.