Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said on Monday that Israel will keep regarding Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization even if the United States removes the label from the powerful paramilitary group.
Speaking at a Ynet's People of Israel conference, Lapid said that "even if the U.S. government removes the IRGC from the terrorist organization list, as far as Israel is concerned, both on the practical and military level, it is still a terrorist organization, and it will be treated as such."
Jerusalem's top diplomat also stated that the dialogue with Washington in that regard is complex and that Israel doesn't hide the fact it has disagreements with the White House.
Lapid's remarks come after a report last week that the U.S. is considering removing the IRGC from its foreign terrorist organization blacklist in return for Iranian assurances about reining in the elite force, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The source said Washington had not decided what might be an acceptable commitment from Tehran in exchange for such a step, which would reverse former U.S. President Donald Trump's 2019 blacklisting of the group and draw sharp Republican criticism.
The move was the first time Washington had formally labeled part of another sovereign government as a terrorist group.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (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.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Biden administration was weighing whether to drop the terrorist designation "in return for some kind of commitment and/or steps by Iran, with respect to regional or other IRGC activities."
Earlier on Monday, Defense Minister Benny Gantz joined the call to keep Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps on the United States’ list of terrorist organizations, all while calling to deepen cooperation with Washington.