Congress Introduces Bipartisan Bills Targeting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards

New bills are being introduced in Congress with bipartisan support that would target the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s powerful extraterritorial militia, preventing it from benefiting from the sanctions relief that was allowed as part of the nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic.

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Proposals like the IRGC Sanctions Act, the Quarantining the Ayatollah’s State-Sponsored Aggression and Militancy (QASSAM) Act, the Iran Terror Finance Transparency Act, the IRGC Terrorist Designation Act,  and the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Sanctions Implementation and Review Act have been introduced by members of both parties in both Congressional chambers. Tyler Stapleton, Deputy Director of Congressional Relations for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at that think tank, wrote a policy brief on Monday that explains and different ways the bills would sanction he IRGC and label it a terrorist organization:

The bills aim to address weaknesses in the current system of sanctions, which fail “to designate hundreds of Guard companies and thousands of its top officials.” The IRGC is a potent military and economic force in Iran, and controls around 20 percent of the value of the Tehran Stock Exchange. Once sanctions are lifted, Stapleton and Ottolenghi write, “Congress will have to move swiftly to minimize the risk that renewed trade relations with Tehran enrich the Guard’s already full coffers.”

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Read the full article here.