Iranian FM Faces Criticism Despite Holding onto IRGC Delisting

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian receives Enrique Mora, the European coordinator for nuclear talks, in Tehran on Sunday. (EPA)
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian receives Enrique Mora, the European coordinator for nuclear talks, in Tehran on Sunday. (EPA)
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Iranian FM Faces Criticism Despite Holding onto IRGC Delisting

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian receives Enrique Mora, the European coordinator for nuclear talks, in Tehran on Sunday. (EPA)
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian receives Enrique Mora, the European coordinator for nuclear talks, in Tehran on Sunday. (EPA)

Iran’s demand from the US to remove the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from its terrorist list has transformed from an unresolved issue at the Vienna talks to an item for internal controversy among conservatives in the cleric-led country.

Controversy is raging in Tehran despite Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian confirming that the country was holding onto the condition for reaching a nuclear deal in Vienna. He had praised IRGC leaders for their sacrifice in greenlighting Iran avoiding any “obstacles” in the way of reviving the nuclear agreement.

In a televised interview, the minister said the delisting demand was one of the important issues at the negotiations, which conclude their first year next week.

He explained that the problem with negotiations lies in some of the important outstanding issues between Iran and the United States. Removing the IRGC terrorist designation is one of the issues on the agenda.

He said IRGC commanders do not object if the government gives up its demand from the US to remove the military organization from its Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.

He claimed that senior Revolutionary Guard officials always tell the government that it should do whatever it deems necessary to secure the country's national interests and not to prioritize the issue of the IRGC, calling it “self-sacrifice on the part of the IRGC.”

However, he added that despite having the “permission” from the IRGC, the government continues to consider its removal from the US list of terror organizations as a “major issue” in the talks.

The misinterpretation, or imprecise quotation, of Amirabdollahian’s remarks on Saturday prompted scathing criticism from some hardliners in Iran.

The ultra-hardliner chief editor of Kayhan newspaper, Hossein Shariatmadari, harshly attacked the FM, describing his remarks as “very odd and unexpected.”

Shariatmadari, appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said to forgo the IRGC delisting was “surrender,” not “sacrifice.”

“These remarks could suggest that Iran's foreign minister is not blessed with the adequate and necessary command of current affairs in his domain of responsibility,” he wrote and urged IRGC commanders to correct the Amirabdollahian’s remarks.



Palestinian Protest Leader Detained by US Misses Son’s Birth 

Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP)
Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP)
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Palestinian Protest Leader Detained by US Misses Son’s Birth 

Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP)
Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP)

Detained pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil missed the birth of his son on Monday after US authorities refused a temporary release, his wife said.

A graduate student at New York's Columbia University who was one of the most visible leaders of nationwide campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza, Khalil was arrested by immigration authorities on March 8.

He was ordered deported even though he was a permanent US resident through his American citizen wife, Noor Abdalla.

Abdalla said that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) denied a request to release Khalil temporarily for the birth of their child.

"This was a purposeful decision by ICE to make me, Mahmoud and our son suffer," she said in a statement.

"My son and I should not be navigating his first days on earth without Mahmoud. ICE and the Trump administration have stolen these precious moments from our family in an attempt to silence Mahmoud's support for Palestinian freedom," she said.

She gave birth in New York. Khalil was transferred to the southern state of Louisiana in an apparent bid to find a judge sympathetic to President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

Trump's advisors have accused pro-Palestinian protesters of promoting anti-Semitism and terrorism, charges the activists deny.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invoked a law approved during the 1950s Red Scare that allows the United States to remove foreigners seen as adverse to US foreign policy.

Rubio argues that US constitutional protections of free speech do not apply to foreigners and that he alone can make decisions without judicial review.

Hundreds of students have seen their visas revoked, with some saying they were targeted for everything from writing opinion articles to minor arrest records.

Immigration authorities last week arrested another Columbia University student active in the protests, Mohsen Mahdawi, as he attended an interview seeking to become a US citizen.