Latest Newsletter From USIP.org 4/15/2022

 

Latest Newsletter From USIP.org 4/15/2022

The latest newsletter covers the last hurdle to revival of the Iran nuclear deal – centered on whether the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) remains on the U.S. terrorist list – plus a list of all U.S. sanctions on the IRGC, and warnings about Iran by the new head of U.S. Central Command. It also includes new reports on Iranian human rights abuses by the State Department and Amnesty International, plus the news digest.  Iran Deal: The IRGC is the Final Hurdle The last and biggest hurdle to reviving the 2015 nuclear deal was the dispute between Washington and Tehran over the status of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Iran demanded that the United States remove the IRGC from the State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Iran Deal: U.S. Sanctions on the IRGC Since 2007, the United States has sanctioned the IRGC – as well as its proxies and foreign companies that support it – under at least eight executive orders and six laws. “The vast majority of the sanctions that we have imposed on Iran have been imposed on the IRGC,” State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said on April 13, 2022.  CENTCOM's Major General Michael Kurilla on Iran Major General Michael Kurilla, the new head of Central Command, has repeatedly warned about the dangers from Iran. At his confirmation hearing, he said that Iran’s military capabilities are “rapidly expanding” in ways that threaten U.S. personnel, facilities, and allies as well as international trade.  State Department Report on Human Rights in Iran Iran’s human rights record was extremely poor in 2021, the State Department reported. Security, judicial and political officials carried out extrajudicial killings, restricted free expression and religious freedom, recruited child soldiers, and discriminated against women and minority groups, among other offenses. Amnesty International: Iran's Human Rights Abuses “Thousands of people were interrogated, unfairly prosecuted and/or arbitrarily detained solely for peacefully exercising their human rights, and hundreds remained unjustly imprisoned,” in Iran in 2021, according to Amnesty International's annual report. Security forces also used lethal force and birdshot to crush protests. News Digest: Week of April 11 During the week of April 11, Iran claimed that some $7 billion of its assets frozen by U.S. sanctions will be released soon, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iran's future should not be tied to the outcome of nuclear talks with the world's major powers.  SOURCE: https://iranprimer.usip.org/