Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (right) speaks as Majid Takhteravanchi, a member of Iran's nuclear team, listens during a nuclear deal review meeting in Tehran, Sunday. Dozens of companies tied to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, a military force commanding a powerful industrial empire with huge political influence, will win sanctions relief under a nuclear deal agreed with world powers. — Reuters
BEIRUT/WASHINGTON — Dozens of companies tied to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, a military force commanding a powerful industrial empire with huge political influence, will win sanctions relief under a nuclear deal agreed with world powers. The development is likely to anger critics of the accord, not least in the United States and Israel, but may be welcomed by Iranians eager for Iran to reopen to the outside world. The IRGC will act for Western firms in many ways as a gatekeeper to some of the most lucrative areas of Iran's economy. Such is the clout of companies with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which sees itself as the defender of Iran's revolutionary ideals and bulwark against US influence, that their release from financial curbs could of itself help ease return of swathes of the economy to the mainstream of world trade. The process is complex and will unfold in stages, with some firms obliged to wait eight years for sanctions relief and others who can expect no concession even then from Washington, a reflection of concerns over activities beyond Iran's borders. Among the latter is the IRGC's construction arm Khatam Al Anbia, controlling at least 812 affiliated companies worth billions of dollars and deemed by Washington "proliferators of weapons of mass destruction". The European Union will delist the company for sanctions in eight years, while the United States will maintain its measures against the firm. Foreign businessmen must gauge at that time to what extent they can trade with such partners without themselves inviting US measures. In all, about 90 current and former IRGC officials, entities such as the IRGC itself, and firms that conducted transactions for the Guards will be taken off nuclear sanctions lists by either the United States, EU or United Nations, according to a Reuters tally based on annexes to the text of the nuclear deal. A handful will see EU sanctions removed once the nuclear deal is enacted on "Implementation Day" expected within the next year. Others such as Bank Saderat Iran (BSI), accused by Washington of transferring money to groups it deems "terrorist", such as Hezbollah and Hamas, will have EU sanctions lifted in eight years; but US measures will remain in place. Any IRGC companies delisted at the implementation stage would be able to "move money through global banks, access the SWIFT financial system, obtain and extend credit", among other activities, said Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. They could also get the backing of European export financing. Most IRGC entities such as the elite Quds force, which carries out overseas operations, and Guards' air force and missile command will not be de-listed by the EU until the second phase in some eight years. But all will remain then under US sanction for "terrorism support activities" or as "proliferators of weapons of mass destruction". — Reuters
