Earlier this month, Brigadier General Hamid Vahedi, Iran’s air force commander, ended weeks of speculation about the imminent delivery Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets.
asdasdasdasdasdasdasdasdasdasd
asdasdasdasdasdasdasdasdasdasd
All tagged IRGC
Earlier this month, Brigadier General Hamid Vahedi, Iran’s air force commander, ended weeks of speculation about the imminent delivery Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets.
SIPRI produces the world’s most authoritative data on global military expenditure and the arms trade. But for years they have been overstating the size of Iran’s military budget.
Reports indicate that the “final hurdle” facing the Iran nuclear negotiations is Iran’s demand for the removal of the Foreign Terrorist Organisation designation placed on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, part of Iran’s armed forces.
◢ Reform-minded Iranians, especially those inside the ailing banking system, are worried that the US government’s step to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization has doomed a years-long effort to get the Islamic Republic off a consequential global blacklist.
◢ The administration of US President Donald Trump last week designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, part of Iran’s armed forces, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. With the future of both the Iran nuclear deal and prospects for US-Iran diplomacy at stake, a political fallout is the clear intention behind designating the IRGC a terrorist organization.
◢ The Trump administration announced the designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)—a branch of Iran’s armed forces—as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). While the practical effect of the FTO designation is negligible at best, the risks to the US from the designation could be severe.
◢ The bazaar of today is not the bazaar of forty years ago, and no longer plays the same role as a key actor in Iran’s popular political mobilizations. The recent bazaar closures reflect primarily the economic self-interest of bazaar elite, who sense an opportunity to put the brakes on reforms that threaten their unique capacities for lucrative arbitrage. Protests are being co-opted as a political tool at the expense of genuine civil society mobilization.
◢ The Trump administration's new Iran policy focuses largely on targeting the IRGC in the name of American national security. But IRGC will not stop its expansionism in the Middle East because of sanctions and sanctions will not weaken the Iranian government at home.
◢ If the Trump administration continues to harm Iran's economy, the biggest losers will be the Iranian people, caught between punitive U.S. policies and an illiberal regime.
Since 1988, the Berman Amendment has limited the authority of the President to restrict the exchange of information as part of American sanctions policy. But the new sanctions designation of the IRGC and recent voluntary actions by American companies suggest that the long standing protection for the free trade of ideas is under threat.
◢ Later today, President Trump will decertify Iran's compliance with the JCPOA on national security grounds. However, early reporting based on background briefings provided to European officials makes clear that administration does not intend to walk away from the Iran Deal.
◢ Instead, Trump is pushing the issue of Iran policy to Congress, recommending new actions to counteract Iran, but not going so far as to recommend the full "snapback" of sanctions.
