West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin demanded a “full briefing” from Secretary of State Antony Blinken on discussions to re-enter the Iran Nuclear Deal on Tuesday.
In a letter to Blinken, the centrist raised worry that one of the steps under consideration was removing sanctions against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which then-President Donald Trump designated as a terrorist organization in 2019.
He also slammed ex-President Barack Obama’s original 2015 deal as a ‘mistake.’
‘While I support President Biden’s commitment to reengaging the Government of Iran in diplomacy, we should not reward Iran with sanctions relief before they demonstrate verifiable efforts towards curbing their malign influence holistically; including their nuclear ambitions, terrorism financing, and dual-use weapons development,’ Manchin’s letter began.
‘I am particularly worried about reports that you might be considering removing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization list in the hopes that trade relations can be reestablished with Iran to assist with our energy crisis.
‘Let me be clear. the IRGC is a terrorist organization.’
The IRGC is a military outside of Iran’s standard forces that has broad influence within Tehran’s politics and economy.
Talks to re-enter the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) gained fresh urgency in recent weeks, after Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine that plunged the global energy supply chain into chaos.
Reports have suggested that the U.S. may look to Iran as one possible oil market, in order to offset a gap left by President Joe Biden’s total ban on Russian energy imports in retaliation for Moscow’s brutal attack.
But talks hit yet another impasse recently over the IRGC’s status. The State Department signaled on Monday that a reversal of the elite military unit’s terrorist label, one of Tehran’s key demands, was off the table for U.S. negotiators in Vienna.
‘If Iran wants sanctions lifting that goes beyond the JCPOA, they’ll need to address concerns of ours that go beyond the JCPOA,’ department spokesman Ned Price said.
Iran, however, blamed the American side for pervasive delays in the discussions.
Manchin warned on Tuesday: ‘We must not be shortsighted in the use of sanctions relief to mitigate our present energy challenges.’
Iran and the U.S. have been negotiating through third parties for roughly a year to revive the Barack Obama-era deal, which Trump withdrew the country from in 2018.
An impasse in the current talks stems from the U.S.’s reluctance to lift its terrorist organization label off of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (pictured: IRGC commander-in-chief Hossein Salami)
Manchin said he was ‘very concerned’ about the ‘ongoing negotiations.’
The senator, who opposed the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal and praised Trump for exiting it, cautioned against lifting the myriad sanctions imposed by the ex-president just to get talks going again.
Instead of Iran, Manchin said, Biden should be looking to Congress for measures like his proposed tax credit for clean energy manufacturing, what the senator has called an ‘all-of-the-above energy policy.’
‘Sanctions are our primary leverage to facilitate agreements on halting malign Iranian actions and should not be used to achieve non-strategic objectives. Instead. we should continue to invest in an all-of-the-above domestic energy policy to bolster our national security and our ability to help our allies and partners abroad,’ Manchin advised.
‘Congress has the opportunity to pass additional bipartisan energy legislation to further expand our ability to deliver the energy our allies and partners need. We cannot and should not look to Iran to solve our energy problems.’
He accused the country’s Islamic regime of ‘destabilizing the Middle East and Africa through terrorism financing, which has resulted in thousands of deaths, including the deaths of U.S. servicemembers.’
‘I agree we must halt the progress of Iran’s nuclear weapons program,’ the lawmaker said.
‘However, we must continue to negotiate a halt to Iran’s use of state-sponsored terrorism, advancement of its missile program, and the continued proliferation of dual-use technologies.’
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