US grants exemptions to new sanctions on Iran guard force

Ban on travel won’t apply to officials of foreign governments or businesses that have dealings with Tehran’s elite military unit or its subsidiaries

By MATTHEW LEE24 April 2019, 7:53 pm 1

35shares

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference on April 22, 2019, at the State Department, in Washington. (AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it would be granting major exemptions to new sanctions on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlined the exemptions in notices published in the Federal Register. A ban on travel to the US stemming from the designation of the Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization will not apply to officials of foreign governments or businesses that have dealings with the elite military unit or its subsidiaries.

The US designated the force as a terrorist organization earlier this month.

Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition by email and never miss our top storiesFREE SIGN UP

US law authorizes authorities to bar entry to the US by anyone found to have provided “material support” to a terrorist organization.

Members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) march during the annual military parade marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, in the capital Tehran on September 22, 2018. (AFP/STR)

Pompeo says the waivers are in the interests of US national security, but they are likely to frustrate members of Congress who favor tough measures on Iran.

The US terrorism designation for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard formally took effect on April 8 — a move meant to increase pressure on Iran, isolate it further and prompt authorities to divert some of the financial resources Tehran uses to fund militant activity in the Middle East and beyond.

It prompted Iranian lawmakers a day later to overwhelmingly approve a bill labeling US forces in the Middle East as terrorist and labeling America a “supporter of terrorism.”

The guard’s designation — the first-ever for an entire division of another government — adds another layer of sanctions to the powerful paramilitary force, and makes it a crime under US jurisdiction to provide it with material support.

The United States reimposed sanctions on Iran, including on its energy sector, last November, after President Donald Trump pulled out of the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

On Monday, Washington announced that it will no longer exempt any countries from US sanctions if they continue to buy Iranian oil, stepping up pressure on Iran, in a move that primarily affects the five remaining major importers: China, India, and US treaty allies: Japan, South Korea, Turkey.

Content retrieved from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-grants-exemptions-to-new-sanctions-on-iran-guard-force/.