Fresh off of a visit to the US to lobby officials on Iran, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz says that the US is remaining firm against any possible deal to remove Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from the terror watchlist.
That was a major issue holding up the Iran nuclear deal, and Gantz and other Israeli officials expressed hope that the US unwillingness to make a deal on that would ruin the whole process.
That position may be changing as Israeli intelligence is warning of the danger of the US and Iran not making any deal at all. They prefer a “bad deal,” which might include something on the IRGC.
It’s not clear the IRGC deal is necessary to make a nuclear deal either way, even though both the US and Gantz have suggested it was in the past. Iran has said they think that should be kept separate from the negotiations.
Israeli DM: US Firm Against Removing IRGC From Terror List
Gantz visited DC this week to push that position
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.
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