Commander Says Iran Won’t Drop Soleimani's Revenge For Nuclear Deal

So called ‘reformist’ and moderate-conservative media and figures are saying that Iran’s nuclear negotiators last year had clinched a deal to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement known as the JCPOA in talks with world power from April to June, when presidential elections brought hardliner Ebrahim Raisi to power.

Almost simultaneously Tehran stopped the talks saying it needed time for its new government to form and resume negotiations, but that delay lasted five months, while American sanctions continued to wreak havoc on the country’s economy.

Former president Hassan Rouhani’s minister of cultural, and a well-connected moderate conservative former diplomat, Ali Jannati, told Khabar Online website on Thursday that the previous negotiating team had a pledge from the Biden Administration to lift all sanctions if the talks had reached fruition.

Jannati was implicitly referring to the current deadlock in the talks over Iran’s demand to remove the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) from the United States’ list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).

He accused Iran’s hardliners of not allowing the previous negotiating team to continue its work because of factional politics and this delayed an agreement for months – or perhaps indefinitely.

Jannati said that the United States was ready to lift all nuclear-related sanctions and moreover reverse former president Donald Trump’s Executive Order sanctioning Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office and all related entities.

“Regarding removing the terrorist designation of the Guards, they [Americans] said it would depend on the progress in the talks and, for example, the release of American prisoners,” Jannati told Khabar Online. “But suddenly the talks were stopped, which I believe was [domestic] political move,” he added.

‘Reformist’ Etemad newspaper also on Thursday published an analysis of the nuclear issue and its impact on the economy, asking why the negotiations were stopped last year because of domestic political considerations.

“In six rounds of talks [in 2021] it was announced that an agreement was at hand, but…nothing was finalized to allow the new [Raisi] government to conclude a deal and claim credit. But this delay was damaging to the economy,” Etemad said.

The newspaper added that Iran could have sold billions of dollars of oil to Europe in the past nine months and regained other traditional clients, such as South Korea and Japan. In addition, in incalculable amount in foreign investments were lost.

At this juncture, Etemad said, a new hurdle has emerged, with Washington refusing to remove the IRGC from its list of terrorist organizations, unless Tehran agrees to negotiate over regional issues.

“Reformist’ politician and commentator Abbas Abdi told the newspaper that even if an agreement is reached it would give Iran fewer benefits than the original deal in 2015. A lot of uncertainty has crept in regarding the future and many foreign governments and companies would hesitate to expand ties with Iran not knowing when the new deal would fall apart.

“JCPOA’s main benefit [for Iran] was normalization of its economic ties [with the world] and oil exports…were just a part of that,” Abdi said, while if an agreement is reached now, it would mainly mean selling crude and receiving the money unhindered. The larger benefit of becoming part of the international economy has been lost, he argued.

Recent commentaries in hardline media reflect growing concerns among hardliners that Iranians would blame the IRGC for the failure to secure a deal to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement, and the lifting of sanctions, which increasingly impose hardships on ordinary people.

An unattributed commentary Wednesday in Tasnim news agency which is linked to the IRGC clearly indicated that Iran wants the IRGC to be removed from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) but claimed that this was the only "one of the remaining issues" on which the US side had to make a final decision.

The commentary accused the US negotiators of trying to exaggerate the importance of delisting of the IRGC to divert Iranian public opinion from the "real matter of contention".

"Limiting the causes of the halt in the talks to the removal of the IRGC from the FTO is the US negotiating team's psychological operation to put pressure on decision-making entities in our country," Tasnim wrote. The real issue, it said, is "Iran benefiting economically from a deal" if sanctions on "effectual individuals, entities, and companies in [Washington's] red list" are lifted.

The IRGC was designated under Donald Trump in April 2019. This was the first time that the US put another country's military on its terror list.

The government mouthpiece, Iran newspaper, also ran a commentary Wednesday in which it argued, indirectly, that the IRGC was not to blame for the continuation of sanctions that many Iranians see as a major contributor to their economic hardships.

"The main issue [preventing a deal] is the US administration's lack of confidence in making important decisions", the commentary entitled "Biden's Weak Administration the Main Cause of Not Reaching an Agreement in Vienna" said, conspicuously failing to mention the IRGC's name even once.

Instead, the writer of the commentary, Mehdi Poursafa, who often contributes to IRGC-linked media outlets such as Javan newspaper and Fars news agency, accused the Biden administration of lacking courage to bypass the opposition from the "Zionist regime and the Israeli-Arab lobby in Washington" despite having "the required political capacity to approve an agreement with Iran".

Poursafa opined that the Biden administration would not make a deal before the November Congressional elections. "But Iran can't remain indifferent to this matter. Tehran surely does not want to pay the price for the domestic problems of the Biden administration and will make its next move based on the US administration's behavior and commensurate to its own national interests," he said.

The Biden administration has come under pressure not only from Republicans, but also from some key Democrats who insist that the IRGC should remain of the FTO list. So far 49 Republican Senators have called on Biden not to make concessions to Iran.

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin who was one of the four Democrats to vote against the Iran nuclear deal under Barack Obama in 2015 in a letter to the Secretary of State Antony Blinken Tuesday said he supported Biden's 'diplomacy' with Iran but warned that sanctions should remain in place until Iran demonstrates "verifiable efforts towards curbing their malign influence".

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami said on Wednesday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) raised some concerns about the country’s nuclear program in reports published during the past four years, but all such issues are resolved now.

He claimed that those reports were mostly based on allegations by Israel and some opposition groups against the Islamic Republic.

Eslami said that Iran and the IAEA handled their relations in accordance with Safeguard Agreement regulations and will continue their routine interactions.

Earlier in April, Eslami said Iran had sent documents related to outstanding issues to the UN nuclear watchdog.

He added that the nuclear sites and centers that were damaged in recent years, including Arak heavy water reactor, have been overhauled and are now operating as usual in accordance with the Strategic Action Plan for the Lifting of Sanctions, which was passed by the parliament in late 2020.

Eslami’s claims have not been independently verified. The IAEA also has not confirmed that outstanding issues with Iran have been resolved.

Eleven months of indirect talks between Iran and the United States to restore its 2015 nuclear agreement, (JCPOA), have stalled as Iran has demanded the removal the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

The extradition for a scheme to circumvent an arms embargo on Iran was confirmed according to court documents showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Spanish police arrested in the Barcelona airport in September at the request of US prosecutors, who suspect him of importing from the United States and selling in Iran fuel Murat Bukey cells that can be used in powering ballistic missiles and biodetection in 2012 and 2013, the court said.

Iran was then under a UN arms embargo that banned imports of missile components and technologies. The embargo expired in 2020, but Iran remains under US economic sanctions.

In its ruling the court said Bukey had "falsely declared the material wouldn't be exported to Iran". He is also accused of money laundering.

During the extradition hearing, Bukey's lawyers argued the US statute of limitations had run out on the alleged offences and that they had been allegedly committed while he was in Turkey, not in the United States.

Still, his lawyer, Llorenc Caldentey Morey, said he was not appealing against the decision. Bukey will remain in custody pending the approval of the extradition by the Spanish government.

Government-controlled media in Tehran often publish these statements in what some allege are attempts to spread optimism and try to support the falling Iranian currency.

However, none of those news stories have turned out to be true. In the meantime, speculations in Iranian press put the frozen assets abroad between 45 to over 100 billion dollars. Officials constantly highlight the $7 billion frozen in South Korea but Iranian media never mention the reported $22 billion China owes Iran or another $7 billions frozen in India.

One of the latest reports about Iran's frozen assets appeared in Jahan-e Sanat newspaper, which also featured a video about the status of those assetson its website.

During the past week, first the editor of hardliner daily Kayhan, Hossein Shariatmadari suggested that Iran should bloc the entry of South Korean ships into the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz to put pressure on Seoul to repatriate Iran's oil money. Then Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh claimed defiantly that "releasing Iran's frozen assets has nothing to do with US sanctions and we will not allow the United States to intervene in this matter." Commenting was not allowed under the post.

Following Khatibzadeh’s statement, the US State Department refuted his claim and said no agreement has been made about releasing Iranian assets.

According to Jahan-e Sanat, more than $50 billions of Iran's money is blocked: China ($22 billion), India ($7 billion), Japan ($1.5 billion), South Korea ($7 billion) and Iraq ($3.5 billion). The figures do not quite add up to $50 billion though.

US sources expressed regret that stories about an imminent release of Iranian Americans jailed in Iran were also untrue. Last week, Jomhouri Eslami newspaper in Tehran had announced that "three dual national Iranian American spies" were released in Tehran. Despite the paper's good access to Iranian sources, this one turned out to be false.

According to Jahan-e Sanat, there have been a lot of speculations about repatriating Iran's funds from Iraq and South Korea and Iranian officials have made conflicting remarks about how and where the money is going to be spent.

Iran's Planning and Budget Chief Massoud Mirkazemi said that money, when and if repatriated will be handed over to the Central Bank of Iran, the National Development Fund and the Raisi administration. None of the three entities have reported receiving any money yet. Nonetheless, economists in Iran agree that any funds released will lead to an improvement in Iran's economy that has been under sanctions’ pressure since 2018.

Jamshid Edalatian Shahriari, a former member of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce told Jahan-e Sanat that although these funds can make a difference for Iran, there are many "ifs" and "buts" involved in the process.

"First, we do not know whether or not these assets are really going to be released. Second, these assets will not be released before a deal is made to revive the JCPOA. Third, Some of these countries, like South Korea have said that they cannot give cash to Iran and that they can pay their debt in Kind rather than in cash, and they will determine what they can sell to Iran when the time comes," Shahriari said.

"Meanwhile, the Iranian government has big debts to the Central Bank and the National Development Fund," and this does not leave too much money for the government to solve its huge economic problems, Shahriari observed.