Minister Says Iran's Oil Exports Reached A Record High Despite Sanctions

"We've made progress over the course of the last several weeks. There are still some issues left," Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One as President Joe Biden flew to Brussels. He said it is "unclear if this will come to closure or not" but the allies are trying to use diplomacy to put Iran's nuclear program "back in a box."

One of the main issues is the controversial question of removing Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) from the US Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list. Iran has been insisting on this demand, while the Biden Administration appears not to have decided yet.

Strong opposition from Republicans and some Democrats in Congress have emerged in recent days, with multiple calls on the White House not to make such a concession.

American regional allies, such as Israel and some Arab states also oppose the move.

In a joint statement exclusively shared with Axios on Tuesday, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, and national security advisor Robert C. O'Brien said the move would be “a denial of the basic reality that the IRGC's core mission is to spread terror".

Quoting the US Intelligence Community Annual Threat Assessment issued last month, they reiterated that Iran is a threat to US persons directly and via proxy attacks and "previously attempted to conduct lethal operations in the United States."

“These assessments, combined with the IRGC's lengthy history of killing hundreds of Americans…make it clear: The IRGC is a terrorist organization and should remain labeled as such," they said.

“The pursuit of an ill-conceived ‘deal’ should not compel American leaders to acquiesce to the demands of a terrorist regime to deny the truth. American lives are at stake, and this is a time to project strength, not weakness."

Republican lawmakers are raising objections to removing the IRGC from the US terror list. In their latest effort, 87 representatives wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging him not to remove the IRGC from the list, saying the IRGC "is one of the most dangerous terrorist groups in the world today.

Owji also said Iran increased it income year-on-year by 250 percent from oil, gas condensates, petrochemical products, and natural gas in the Iranian year ended on March 20 due to new customers and diversified contracts.

Opec (Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries) put Iran’s average 2021 production at 2.405 million barrels a day (BPD), up from 2 million in 2020 but lower than the 3.8 million before the US imposed ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions in 2018 threatening punitive action against third parties buying Iranian crude and slashed Iran’s exports.

"In parliament, lawmakers decided to raise the ceiling of exports of oil and condensates from 1.2 million barrels (per day) to 1.4 million barrels,” Owji said. “The Oil Ministry will do everything in its power to realize the level set in the budget.”

In late 2020, Iran announced an ambitious plan to raise production capacity to over 6.5 million bpd by 2040, although some pundits say this would is unrealistic due to the sanctions that have prevented Iran from pumping at anywhere near capacity since 2018. Opec said in its latest report that Iran’s crude production in February rose by 44,000 barrels a day (bpd) from January to 2.546 million barrels.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennet and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid issued a statement on Fridaycriticizing what they said was US intentions to remove the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) from the foreign terrorist organizations blacklist. They appealed to the United States not to delist the top military force of its arch-foe, which it considers as a threat to Israel's existence.

The state-owned Kan 11 on Friday said that Gantz refused to sign the scathing statement.

Gantz spoke with the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hours after the statement issued and thanked the US Senate for approving a $4.8 billion defense aid package for Israel. According to a statement issued by the Defense Minister's office, Gantz and Austin "discussed the details of the emerging nuclear agreement and Israel's position regarding its components."

The delisting of the IRGC appears to be Iran's last condition for signing a deal after nearly a year of intense negotiations to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Kan 11 said Israel does not believe that Iran will abide by any commitments it may make in a new deal. Reports have said that US is seeking a guarantee from Tehran to curtail IRGC activities beyond Iran’s borders.

"The attempt to delist the Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization is an insult to the victims,' Israeli Prime Minister Bennett and Foreign Minister Lapid say in a joint statement Friday.

The statement comes after State Department spokesman Ned Price on Wednesday said Washington and Tehran were "close to a possible deal" but "not there yet". "We do think the remaining issues can be bridged," he added.

Under former President Donald Trump in 2019, the United States designated the IRGC as a "foreign terrorist organization" after unilaterally withdrawing from the JCPOA and imposing draconian sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

"Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his ministers don’t make a habit of squabbling publicly with the Americans, but they have plenty of complaints about flaws in the new agreement, which they believe will leave Israel in a more dangerous position than after the original 2015 nuclear deal," a commentary in Israel's Haaretz on Friday said.

The White House Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Thursday that there is "ongoing negotiation" over delisting the IRGC. "I’m not going to get into specifics of it.But I would just note that the status quo where we stand has done nothing to make us safer in any regard.In fact, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard has only been strengthened," she said.

Psaki also said the notion that the actions of the past administration pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal has reduced the actions or the escalatory behavior of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard "is inaccurate". "They’ve actually -- the Iranian government has actually doubled their budget or something like that," she added.

Iranian officials have not recently spoken of delisting the IRGC as a condition to signing an imminent deal but on March 9 a member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Hossein Noushabadi, said the issue of delisting the IRGC had repeatedly been discussed during the talks in Vienna with "promising results".

The Journal offered details on how Iran has sold oil and other commodities, citing information from unnamed “Western” diplomats and intelligence officials. The Journal also reviewed financial transactions of several hundred million dollars for proxy Iranian companies in 61 accounts at 28 banks in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

Although there is a clearing system inside Iran and exporters ‘trade’ foreign currency on ledgers, hard cash is also withdrawn from foreign accounts and taken by couriers to Iran. The Journal said “much of the revenue” was still in bank accounts outside the country.

As usual with sanctions, such an informal infrastructure has been open to corruption as came to light during the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-13). Among those convicted in Iran over malpractice, businessman Babak Zanjani is in jail facing the death penalty after reportedly netting $2.7 billion acting as a middleman selling oil during international sanctions in the early 2010s.

One Western official cited by the Journal called Tehran’s reaction to maximum pressure sanctions – which threaten punitive action against anyone dealing with Iran’s financial system and which sent the country into two years’ deep recession – “an unprecedented governmental money-laundering operation.”