Secretary-General Blinken, elected President Biden, opposed the creation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization that would spread the blow – a possible sign of the Biden administration’s soft stance toward Iran.
Biden announced Monday that a former deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration, Blinken, would be his choice for the country’s top diplomat. It was the Obama administration that entered the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPO) – known as the Iran nuclear deal – that normalized relations with the Iranian regime.
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During that administration, Blinken served as Deputy Secretary of State and as former President Obama’s chief deputy national security adviser, who also served as Biden’s national security adviser.
This Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016, in a file photo, Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announces the Comment on Washington Capitol Hill before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Syria. (AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana, file)
The Trump administration has cracked down on Tehran, withdrawn from the JCPO, amended sanctions on Iran’s economy and energy sectors, and taken action against the IRGC – which assassinated General Qasem Solimani and designated him a terrorist group in 2019.
In 2017, while the Trump administration was still announcing the idea, Blink said he opposed appointing the IRGC as a terrorist group, noting that the Bush administration had also refrained from creating such a designation. The Trump administration will create the designation in 2019.
“If there is a formal official designation as a terrorist organization, I think there is going to be a blow,” he told CNN in October-October 2017. “The Bush administration and the Obama administration, exactly when individual members were using other sanctions against leaders, or the IRGC, resisted appointing the organization.”
He was then asked how he differed from the state department in already describing the organization as a leading sponsor of terrorism.
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“None of us should have any love for the IRGC and the Kuds Force,” he said. “They do terrible things all over the world every day. But in Iran, they are considered the armed forces of the regime. And they also have the ability to troubleshoot, if they want to use it. ”
He instead used the current sanctions in public “without sticking in their eyes in a way that could really react and endanger our troops.”
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Biden has promised to re-enter the Iran nuclear deal. The Guardian reported on Monday that the UK, France and Germany have met to discuss a joint approach with the incoming administration to revive the troubled deal.
Blinken will be at the forefront of any such talks, if confirmed by the Senate. It will also play a key role in reviving other organizations and deals that the Trump administration withdrew from the U.S., including the Paris Climate Agreement.
