McMaster :Investors ‘cutting a check’ to Iranian guards

Bloomberg

Investing in Iran is like “cutting a check” to the country’s Revolutionary Guards, a group labeled as a terrorist organization by the US, according to President Donald Trump’s national security adviser.
Speaking at a security conference on Saturday, National Security Adviser H.R McMaster also took aim at the North Korean regime and said now is the time to cut investments and restrict trade to end the destabilizing influence of Pyongyang and Tehran. He called out Germany, Japan and South Korea for their investments in Iran.
“When you’re investing in Iran, you’re investing in” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a military entity that’s intertwined in the Iranian economy and has drawn US sanctions, McMaster said. “You might as well cut the IRGC a check.”
Military and political leaders at a security conference in Munich differed over how to resolve the long-term security concerns that linger on the Korean peninsula and in the Middle East. While US officials tended to favor raising pressure and threatening sanctions, diplomats from China, South Korea and Russia urged more dialog.

Russian Defense
The Olympics “provided historic momentum by opening the window for dialog” between North and South Korea, said Choo Mi-ae, a member of South Korea’s parliamentary committee on foreign relations. “We need to take advantage of this momentum and lead North Korea to the negotiating table and I’d like to ask for the support of the international community.”
McMaster urged US allies to downgrade diplomatic relations with North Korea and use “all available tools” to pressure the regime of Kim Jong-Un to forfeit its nuclear weapons. US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan told the audience that “every one of us should be dedicated to isolating North Korea.”
US entreaties for more pressure on North Korea and Iran ran into resistance from China and Russia.
Fu Ying, the chairwoman of China’s foreign affairs committee in the National People’s Congress, said that she “hoped the US would avail itself of the opportunity” to re-enter negotiations with North Korea.
Russia’s former ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, urged Washington to find the “wisdom and courage” needed to stick by the Iranian nuclear deal agreed with world powers in July 2015.

‘Flaws’ Cited
The Trump administration continues “looking to correct the flaws” in the Iran deal, Sullivan said. The US is in talks with its European allies about reining in Iran’s missile program and regional influence, with results expected by May 12, he said.
Underscoring the difficulty that US diplomats face in trying to alter the nuclear agreement, former US Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz criticized Sullivan in remarks during the conference.
Critics of the Iran accord’s sunset clauses “make no sense whatsoever,” said Moniz, who helped negotiate the accord over two years of talks. Verification of the accord “is unique, it is forever, it is the heart of the agreement,” he said.