US State Dept official on delisting IRGC: We’re prepared for ‘difficult decisions’

In response to Israeli concerns over reported US plans to delist Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror entity, a State Department official tells The Times of Israel that the White House is prepared to make “difficult decisions” to ensure a return to an Iran nuclear deal.

“We are not negotiating in public and are not going to respond to specific claims about what sanctions we would be prepared to lift as part of a mutual return to full implementation of the JCPOA,” the official says. “We are prepared to make difficult decisions to return Iran’s nuclear program to JCPOA limits.”

On Friday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid issued a joint statement urging the US not to delist the IRGC and “abandon its closest allies in exchange for empty promises from terrorists.”

The State Department official says that Israel and the US “share common interests on confronting dangerous Iran policies beyond their nuclear program, such as their support for terrorism and terrorist proxies. Under any return to the JCPOA, the United States will retain and aggressively use our powerful tools to address these issues, and especially to counter the IRGC, in concert with our allies and partners.”