Israel Hopes US Position on Iran Deal Could Sink Talks

Cheers US refusal to remove Revolutionary Guards from blacklist

Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office expressed pleasure at the latest moves on the Vienna talks on the Iran nuclear deal, something which is virtually unheard of for the dour Israeli government, which tends to oppose anything that involves diplomacy and Iran.

They’re happy because after several days of back and forth, it looks like the US is refusing a proposal to remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) from the terror blacklist.

Sometimes presented as a side deal and sometimes as a “red line” demand, the move seems like it won’t happen, and Israeli officials are hoping this will damage the ongoing talks, and maybe collapse them outright.

That’s not entirely likely, and even Israeli officials conceded that they understand this may not prevent a deal, and complained that it was possible Iran might still benefit if a deal did happen.

This comes as Israeli officials play up the number of attacks they carried out on Iranian targets in recent months, claiming over 400 such strikes. Iranian targets is often misleading, especially as spun by the Israeli press, as it tends to cover not just actual Iranian things, but also anything even tangentially associated with Shi’ite Islam.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.