(MENAFN- Arab Times) 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 Islamic 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' airforce 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". These groups include names likely to cause controversy, at least in the West.
Among them, Quds commander Qasem Soleimani. He has had a high-profile role in advising Shi'ite militia leaders in Iraq as well as the forces of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Meanwhile, more than two dozen top US scientists, among them nuclear researchers and Nobel prize winners, in a letter to President Barack Obama on Saturday praised the Iran nuclear deal as major security achievement, The New York Times reported. The two-page letter, from some of the world's most knowledgeable nuclear experts, could prove to be a shot in the arm for Obama, who has launched a major effort to sell the deals to skeptical members of the US Congress. The letter tells the US president that the Iran deal "will advance the cause of peace and security in the Middle East and can serve as a guidepost for future nonproliferation agreements.
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