Keeping the (IRGC) on the U.S. List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations – A Letter from Academics to Biden

Hundreds of Iranian-American experts and academics have written a letter to the U.S. president, calling for keeping the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on the terrorist list.

According to the German Broadcasting Corporation, the Persian version, 502 American academics and university professors of Iranian origin sent a message on Wednesday to President Biden demanding that he keep the Iranian Guard militias on the US State Department list of terrorist organizations.

“Removing the Revolutionary Guard from the list of terrorist organizations means blatant disregard for the struggle of the Iranian people for freedom and human dignity”, the letter said.

Iran blocked a nuclear deal in Vienna by conditioning the removal of the Revolutionary Guard from the terror list, which the Biden administration has so far rejected.

Last week, General Mark Milley, the top U.S. military official, said he “does not support removing the Revolutionary Guard from the terrorist list”, asserting that he considers the Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force a terrorist group.

“There is no difference between the Revolutionary Guard and the Quds Force, both of which are units that aim to finance and implement the plans of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei”, said Kazem Kazronian, a university professor and one of the signatories to the letter, stressing that the current title “terrorist” is correct and must be preserved.

The letter, from 502 Iranian specialists and academics living in the United States, also states that the IRGC is “Iran’s main lever in the direction of terrorism abroad and a lever in the repression of citizens inside the country”.

Shaheen Totonshi, director and chief engineer at American Light, said: “It is no coincidence that the Iranian regime put the requirement to remove the Revolutionary Guard from its list of terrorist organizations at the forefront of its demands”.

He added: “This step by the United States, if it happens, will unleash once again this horrible trend and kill the people of Iran and other countries in the region”.

At the end of the letter, the experts confirmed: “As Iranian-American scientists, academics and experts, we are deeply concerned about the suffering of the Iranian people under the violent forces of the Revolutionary Guard and respectfully request that the Revolutionary Guard continue to be a terrorist organization”.

In 2019, former U.S. President Donald Trump listed the entire Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, for its active involvement in terrorist financing and regional destabilization.

Nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P4+1 (France, Britain, Germany, Russia, and China) stopped on March 11, while the United States is indirectly involved in these negotiations to revive the 2015 agreement from which it withdrew in mid-2018.