Iran drops demand IRGC be removed from US terror list amid nuclear deal revival efforts: report

Iran has dropped its demand of the US that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) be removed from the State Department's list of foreign terror organisations, according to reports, as a revival of the 2015 nuclear deal edges forward.

In its response Monday to a draft nuclear deal agreement that had been proposed by the European Union, Tehran dropped the demand that the IRGC, an elite wing of Iran's military, be de-listed, CNN reported Friday citing a senior US official.

"The current version of the text, and what they are demanding, drops it," the official said. "So if we are closer to a deal, that's why."

The administration of US President Joe Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, designated the IRGC as a terrorist organisation in 2019, as part of its "maximum pressure" campaign. Trump had withdrawn from the nuclear deal a year earlier.

Washington's repeated refusal to de-list the IRGC had been a major sticking point in negotiations to resurrect the landmark accord. Biden said as recently as last month that his administration would not remove the group from the list.

Tehran also dropped demands related to delisting several companies tied to the IRGC, the US administration official said.

However, officials told CNN that other points of contention between Tehran and Washington still persist.

They said the Biden administration's position on other demands - including Tehran's desire for a guarantee that it will be compensated if a future US president pulls out of the deal, and that a probe by the International Atomic Energy Agency into its nuclear program be shut down - had not changed.