As part of efforts to restart nuclear inspections and prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the Biden administration has considered dropping the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the U.S. terrorist organization list, although no decision has yet been made on this.
This group was only added to the terror list in 2019 by former President Donald Trump, a controversial decision at the time as it was the only foreign governmental agency classified as a terror group. Trump's decision wasn't entirely unfounded, as there is evidence IRGC has been a sponsor of terrorism — however, supporters of delisting IRGC note that there would still be a number of other sanctions barring U.S. entities doing business with them even without the terrorism designation, and it could be a way of getting Iran to cooperate on international inspections.
Regardless of the complexities, Donald Trump Jr. took to Twitter bashing President Joe Biden for reportedly having the option on the table.
Biden is so desperate for a deal he\u2019s trying to hand billions of to Iran and remove the regime\u2019s terrorist arm from the terrorist blacklist. Disgraceful! @SecPompeo, @JohnRatcliffe and @robertcobrien are right, \u201cthis is a time to project strength, not weakness."https://twitter.com/BarakRavid/status/1506380535001661445\u00a0\u2026— Donald Trump Jr. (@Donald Trump Jr.) 1647988172
But as Mother Jones reporter David Choma noted, there was a time when the Trump family wasn't so opposed to the IRGC. In fact, they tried to strike a hotel deal with an oligarch connected to them.
"In 2012, the elder Trump inked a deal in Baku, the capital of the natural-gas rich, but incredibly corrupt, former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan," wrote Choma. "It was set up to be extremely lucrative for the Trumps — they would get big upfront payments for their involvement, would get a lot of say into the design of the hotel, and then would collect royalties and management fees over time. Trump’s Azeri partners would fund the construction of the building and actually own the project."
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"His partners were the Mammadovs, a prominent Azeri family headed by the country’s then-transportation minister, Ziya Mammadov, who, despite his modest government salary and background as a Soviet railroad system apparatchik — a Communist Party functionary — was reportedly worth billions," reported Choma. "The New Yorker documented further details of the Mammadovs’ background at the time Trump did business with them, including the fact that the Mammadovs were known to have a close relationship with an Iranian Revolutionary Guard-linked family called the Darvishis."
Ultimately, this deal never happened. But, noted Choma, "Don Jr., it seems, has conveniently forgotten that his own family’s eagerness for this deal netted his father at least $2.8 million."
