Some Iran Lawmakers Defend Nuclear Negotiators Against Hardliners

On Thursday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mike Milley told a Congressional hearing that he opposes removing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the US terror list and believes the Qods Force to be a terrorist organization.

“I’d say that the President shares the chairman’s [Gen. Milley] view that IRGC-Quds Forces are terrorists, and beyond that, we aren’t going to comment on… topics in the nuclear talks,” Deputy State Department Spokesperson Jalina Porter said.

Negotiations that started one year ago in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear deal known as JCPOA are in a state of limbo after Iran demanded the removal of IRGC from the US Foreign Terrorist Organization blacklist. The Biden Administration has apparently not made a decision on Iran’s demand.

Most Republicans and many Democratic lawmakers have increasingly voiced opposition to delisting the IRGC, which has created a network of militant proxy groups in the Middle East and threatens US allies.

The nuance in the State Department statement is about whether President Biden considers the whole of IRGC a terrorist organization or is trying to only keep the Qods Force on the terror list and remove the larger organization to reach a deal with Tehran.

In a brief interview with Iran International’s correspondent Arash Alaei on Thursday, the Texas Republican Senator said the reason the administration doesn’t want everybody to know about the details “unfortunately is the deal they’re negotiating [which] is a terrible deal for America”.

“Joe Biden has asked [Russian President] Vladimir Putin to negotiate on our behalf, and Russia is negotiating with Iran right now in Vienna. Russia is our enemy and Iran is our enemy”, he added, noting that “the one thing they can agree on is policies that endanger the safety and security of America”.

“This deal is a catastrophic mistake and that’s why the Biden administration is so desperate to hide the details of it from the elected members of the Congress”, Cruz said.

Former president Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran known as JCPOA in 2018, saying it was in adequate to keep Tehran from building nuclear weapons. He imposed ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions. President Joe Biden announced before the 2020 presidential elections that Trump’s policy was wrong, and he would work to revive the JCPOA.

Republicans have opposed Biden’s approach from the beginning and their objections became more intense as reports emerged that the White House was weighing the removal of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO). More Democrats have lately joined the opposition as talks in Vienna to revive the JCPOA have stalled.

About the administration’s options in case of the collapse of the deal, he said, “What they should do is return to the policy of [Donald Trump’s] maximum pressure; they should impose sanctions, they should enforce sanctions”.

Slamming Biden for easing on the oil sanctions that has seen Iran increase its oil exports and revenues, he said, “Right now the Biden administration is turning a blind eye while Iran openly flouts the oil sanctions. The Biden administration is allowing the Ayatollah to sell a million barrels of oil a day with no consequences”.

“The Biden administration has delisted [Iran-backed] Houthis as terrorists even as they carry out ongoing terror attacks”, Cruz said, adding that “the answer is to reverse course entirely; end their policies of weakness, appeasement, and surrender, and instead follow a policy of maximum pressure to prevent the ayatollah from developing nuclear weapons and carrying out terror attacks against Americans and our allies”.

Mohammad Reza Ghaebi, Head of Iran's Permanent Mission to International Organizations in Vienna and acting ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told reporters in Vienna that Iran would not provide access to the cameras installed by the agency in Esfahan if the 2015 nuclear deal, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is not restored.

“That is why the agency has announced that it was unable to confirm whether or not the manufacturing of spare parts for centrifuges has begun in Esfahan,” Ghaebi noted.

The Esfahan site was built to replace the TESA Karaj Complex, a now decommissioned workshop in the west of the capital Tehran. The Karaj site was damaged in a June 2021 attack that Iran said Israel was responsible for. The IAEA has confirmed that the production of centrifuge rotor tubes and bellows at TESA Karaj Complex has stopped.

Ghaebi added that on April 4 Iran informed the IAEA that all the machines for production had been transferred from Karaj to Natanz and on the same day allowed the agency's inspectors verify the move and that the machines were not operating.

IAEA inspectors installed surveillance cameras at the Esfahan facility January 24 to ensure the machines intended for the production of centrifuge rotor tubes and bellows were under monitoring but the production of the parts there had not started.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that in a new confidential report to its member states, the IAEA has said that Iran moved all its machines making centrifuge parts from the workshop at Karaj to its Natanz site. The equipment, according to the report, remained under IAEA seal at Natanz and was not operational.

The report also said that Iran set up another site at Esfahan where the IAEA has also installed cameras but Iran has not given access to the data and recordings from these cameras.

“Without access to the data and recordings collected by these cameras, the agency is unable to confirm whether the production of centrifuge components at the workshop in Esfahan has begun,” the report to IAEA member states said according to Reuters.

In December 2020 the Iranian Parliament passed a law to mandate the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) mandating the government, if US sanctions against Iran were not lifted, to start 20 percent enrichment, install 1,000 advanced centrifuges, and produce at least 120 kg of highly enriched uranium (which is at least 20 percent) within two months of the bill’s approval.

The legislation also required reduction of IAEA monitoring to the to the level required by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty (NPT). The agency had exercised greater access both under the JCPOA and Iran’s Additional Protocol to the NPT.

Under temporary agreements with the IAEA, Iran continues to keep footage from the agency's cameras instead of destroying them, as it had said it would, but does not provide them to the IAEA.

“I wasn’t for it before and I can’t see myself changing my position”, Manchin of West Virginia told Jewish Insider on Wednesday.

He was one of four Democratic senators — along with Bob Menendez (New Jersey), Ben Cardin (Maryland) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York) — who voted against the original nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers in 2015.

Also on Wednesday, New York Democratic Representative Thomas Suozzi expressed concerns “that any wrong move may wrongfully empower Iran, put Israel and the region at risk, and further heighten international tensions”.

Calling Iran “a bad actor” that “cannot be trusted”, Suozzi noted that “If any negotiations continue to move forward, we must ensure that Iran is blocked from purveying its malfeasance throughout the region and the world”.

Earlier in the day in Washington, a group of House Democrats held a news conference marking the first anniversary of the start of the Vienna talks to express concern over the US administration’s efforts to reach a new deal with Tehran. 

Almost all Senate Republicans and many in the House have criticized the Biden administration for its pursuit of a new accord, and Democrats have recently joined the opposition.

Led by Democratic Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Elaine Luria of Virginia, the group representing 18 Democrats held a news conference on the one-year anniversary of the start of negotiations in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

The lawmakers said Washington should not enter into a bad deal that allows Iran to continue its terrorist activities across the region and fails to prevent the Islamic Republic from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Almost all Senate Republicans and many in the House have criticized the administration for its pursuit of a new deal with Iran, but Democrats have joined the opposition more recently.

Congresswoman Luria said, "I have serious concerns about reports that Vienna Talks are discussing the lifting of sanctions designed not just to address Iran's... nuclear activities, but even addressing the sponsorship of terrorism", adding that “we cannot afford another failed deal".

“We understand that while the recent negotiations have not concluded, we feel that we can't stay quiet about the unacceptable and deeply troubling turn that these talks have reportedly taken”, she said referring to Iran’s demands to remove the IRGC for the US list of foreign terrorist organizations.

“I believe it's completely unacceptable that it would be considered as part of this negotiation to lift Iran's Foreign Terrorist Organization designation on Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corp, it's completely unacceptable to eliminate sanctions on the leadership of the Iranian regime, which has perpetuated terrorist attacks around the world…and has sought to destabilize the Middle East” she added.

Rep. Gottheimer noted that “if Iran has proven anything, it’s that they can’t be trusted", adding that it is critical the US does not cater to Iran's demands.

He further underlined that "we need a longer and stronger deal, not one that is shorter and weaker. It's time to stand strong against terrorists, protect American values and our allies."

He added that the worst case scenario is “a nuclear Iran, regardless of what commitments are made, funding Hezbollah, Hamas -- through these giving billions of dollars to fund terror around the world to kill Americans, to attack our bases, and of course, to kill our allies”.

He also questioned the role of Russia to keep tab on Iran, asking that "are we seriously going to let a war criminal — Vladimir Putin — be the guarantor of this deal?”

California’s Juan Vargas criticized the Biden administration for keeping Congress in the "dark", saying, “I don’t know exactly what’s in this deal. I can't tell you as they haven't allowed us to look at it”.

"It's a little bit like last time. They keep us in the dark. Then… it turns out there are some fatal flaws. It was a bad deal then, and it's a bad deal now”, he added.

Voicing his suspicion and reservations on the potential deal, Congressman Donald Norcross -- from New Jersey's 1st congressional district -- noted that "all we're doing, in my opinion, is delaying the time it takes Iran to get nuclear weapons."

Minnesota’s Representative Dean Phillips said, “We are not opposed to an agreement. We are opposed to an agreement that doesn't absolutely, positively prevent Iran from either producing or obtaining a nuclear weapon and doesn't end their regime of terror.”

In interview with MSNBC on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken answering a direct question said IRGC is a terrorist organization. “I would say simply that I’m not overly optimistic at the prospects of actually getting an agreement to conclusion, despite all the efforts we put into it, and despite the fact that our security would be better off. We’re not there… and time is getting extremely short”.