Report: Iran Drops Demand in JCPOA Talks for US to Remove IRGC From Terror Blacklist

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Iran dropped a key demand for the US to remove the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from its Foreign Terrorist Organizations list as a condition to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), CNN reported, citing a senior Biden administration official.

The report said on Friday that Iran revealed its decision in its response to the European Union's draft proposal of the Iran nuclear deal.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said earlier this week that the department received Iran's response to the European Union's proposal and is currently studying it and is consulting with its European allies.

The report said Iran also dropped its demand for the United States to delist several companies linked to the IRGC.

Any progress to revive the Iran nuclear agreement from this point forward will be slow since there are still some gaps that remain, however, there is more momentum now than at any other time in the last year, the report quoted the official as saying.

The US is privately consulting with its European allies on the matter, but Washington has not yet officially responded to the European Union's draft proposal or Iran's response, the report added.

On Monday, Iran sent the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, its response to the proposed text of the draft agreement on the restoration of the Iranian nuclear deal, and also expressed its opinion on "remaining issues" in the negotiations.

The EU called Iran's response to the nuclear deal proposal constructive and said it was consulting with Washington on further steps, according to reports.

In 2015, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Russia, the US, France and Iran signed a nuclear deal called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program, which involved the lifting of sanctions in exchange for limiting Iran's activities in the nuclear program.

In May 2018, the US under then-president Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA and reinstated sanctions against Tehran. In response, Iran announced a phased reduction in its obligations under the agreement, waiving restrictions on nuclear research, centrifuges and the level of uranium enrichment.

Negotiations were held in Vienna to renew the JCPOA and lift Washington's sanctions against Tehran. In December 2021, the parties reached consent on two draft agreements, in which the European side included the talking points of Iran.

With the return of the parties to their capitals at the end of March, the negotiations were suspended, and the Iranian Foreign Ministry blamed the US administration for this. The most recent round of negotiations on the JCPOA took place in Doha on June 29-30.