Israel has expressed disquiet at the prospect of the US delisting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign terrorist organisation (FTO).
However, when former US president Donald Trump designated the IRGC as an FTO in April 2019, it was seen as a highly controversial move because Washington had never before labelled another nation’s military in such a way.
Tehran immediately responded by declaring US Central Command (Centcom), the Pentagon wing that oversees US security interests in regions including the Middle East, a terrorist organisation.
Many old Middle East hands warned that the US move could place American troops in danger in the region and Iran’s state-run TV said the designation was not permitted by international law. “No other country has the legal right to designate as terrorist another country’s armed forces.
Iran’s influence in the Middle East and its success in fighting against Islamic State are reasons behind this designation,” the broadcaster said.
Iran’s forces and the militias they back were widely seen by experts at the time as having done far more to destroy Islamic State in Iraq than the US did.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid indicated on February 21 that the US may be open to delisting the IRGC as a terrorist group, and called on international actors to convince the White House to reject this Iranian demand, Middle East Eye reported.
“Everyone in his right mind should talk to the administration about this and tell them, ‘This is just wrong, don’t do that’,” Israel’s top diplomat was reported as saying in Jerusalem at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
“The world cannot agree to these audacious conditions… It cannot allow tens of billions of dollars to flow to Iran [because of the lifting of sanctions] nor allow it to continue to spread terror around the world,” he added.
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