Israel Urges U.S. Not to Drop Terror Designation for Iran’s IRGC

March 18, 2022

Newly-Appointed Commander Of The Quds Force Of The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Esmail Qaani — FILE PHOTO: Ali Khamenei (R) greeting commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Esmail Qaani (L), Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri (C), and Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Chief Commander Hossein Salami, during a mourning ceremony in Tehran for Qasem Soleimani, Tehran, Iran. REUTERS./

JERUSALEM, March 18 (Reuters) – Israel on Friday urged the United States not to remove Iran‘s Revolutionary Guards from its foreign terrorist organization blacklist in exchange for “empty promises”.

The United States was considering such a move, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in return for Iranian assurances about reining in the elite force and comes amid efforts to revive a 2015 deal under which Iran limited its nuclear program in return for relief from sanctions. Read full story

Israel’s prime minister and foreign minister said in a joint statement they “believe that the United States will not abandon its closest allies in exchange for empty promises from terrorists”.

Iranian schoolboys hold RPG-7 rocket-launcher and a UZI-gun while standing in front of an effigy of the Iranian former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force, General Qasem Soleimani, during a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy in downtown Tehran, November 4, 2021. REUTERS./

A group of Iranian schoolboys wearing Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) uniforms pose for photographs in front of an anti-U.S. mural on a wall of the former U.S. embassy after a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy in downtown Tehran, November 4, 2021. REUTERS./

FILE PHOTO: A member of IRGC shoots with his rifle towards the U.S. flag during a war exhibition at a military base in central Tehran. The Persian script reads, “Down with USA.” REUTERS./

“The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is a terrorist organization that has murdered thousands of people, including Americans. We refuse to believe that the United States would remove its designation as a terrorist organization,” they said.

The IRGC is a powerful faction in Iran that controls a business empire as well as elite armed and intelligence forces that Washington accuses of carrying out a global terrorist campaign.

Multiple sources have said dropping the terrorist designation is one of the last, and most vexing, issues in wider indirect talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Nick Macfie)