Israel will continue to object to the emerging Iran nuclear deal and the removal of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the State Department's list for terrorist organizations, even if this means hampering the deal in Congress, Israel Hayom has learned.
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Unlike Former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who publicly railed against the deal and clashed with the Obama administration, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid are not expected to go to great lengths in the matter. However, if Israel's political and security officials were to be asked their opinion on the matter, they too would voice their opposition to the deal and the heavy price the Biden administration is willing to pay to return to the agreement.
Israeli opposition is expected to make it even harder for US President Joe Biden to get the deal backed by Congress. although that won't necessarily be a requirement since it is not considered a treaty. Regardless of Jerusalem's stance, the agreement is greatly criticized in Congress, including Biden's party. Israeli officials believe that criticism against the administration's approach to Iran may prompt the American president to refrain from removing the IRGC from the terrorist list.
Israeli political officials are furious at the administration's apparent willingness to remove the Revolutionary Guards from the blacklist and believe this is an immoral move that would put the lives of Israelis and others at risk.
On Saturday evening, Bennett and Lapid harshly rebuked the administration for the planned move. Such a public statement is rare in light of their insistence since the government's swearing-in that any differences with the administration will be dealt with behind the scenes.
The two said the attempt to revoke the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization is "an insult to the victims and an erasure of documented reality, which has incontrovertible proof."
In related news, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Iran managed to withstand crushing economic sanctions imposed by the US with the help of a clandestine finance system.
The system helped Tehran handle tens of billions of dollars in annual trade banned under sanction, enabling the regime to endure the economic siege and giving it leverage in multilateral nuclear talks, Western diplomats and intelligence officials told the paper.
"This is an unprecedented governmental money-laundering operation," one of the Western officials told the paper.
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