Gen. Mark Milley Tells Senate Committee that IRGC Should Not be Removed from Foreign Terrorist Watch List
Edited by: TJVNews.com
Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that he does not support removing Iran’s Quds Force, an arm of its Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), from a list of foreign terrorist organizations.
“I believe the IRGC Quds Force to be a terrorist organization and I do not support them being delisted,” he said.
As part of its negotiations with Iran over the nuclear deal, the US is considering removing the IRGC from the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list, according to an Al-Arabiya report.
But public backlash and recent outspoken criticism from President Joe Biden’s own political party have stalled the move.
During a hearing on the 2023 President’s Budget request before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) asked Milley and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for their personal opinion on the matter, as was reported by the JPost.
For his part, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he would not comment on negotiations or speculate on his advice to the president. Pressed further, Austin refused to provide his personal opinion, as was reported by Al-Arabiya.
“Political appointees are different,” Gen. Milley said when a lawmaker told Austin that he needed to provide his opinion. “I’ve signed a document that requires [me to give my opinion],” the US general said.
Israel HaYom reported in March that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged the United States to heed calls against any removal of the IRGC from the State Department blacklist after reports emerged that the Biden administration was likely to do so in exchange for an Iranian pledge to avoid aggressive actions in the region.
“We’re concerned about the intention to delist the IRGC,” Bennett told Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he recently visited Israel, according to the Israel HaYom report. “I hope the United States will hear the concerned voices from the region, Israel’s and others, on this very important issue.”
The JPost reported on Wednesday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was not “overly optimistic” at the prospects of bringing the nuclear agreement with Iran to conclusion. In an interview with MSNBC he said, “Despite all the efforts we put into it, we’re not there and time is getting extremely short, but this is something that we will be talking to our European partners about this afternoon and on the next day.”
He added, “I continue to believe that it would be in the best interest of our country if we can back into compliance with the deal if Iran would do the same. We are not there.”
Asked whether the IRGC is a terrorist organization, Blinken answered, “They are.”
The IRGC is the most powerful faction in Iran. Loyal solely to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Revolutionary Guards controls a business empire as well as elite armed and intelligence forces, including the infamous Quds Force – the IRGC’s extra-territorial black ops arm, according to the Israel HaYom report. In April 2019, then President Donald Trump designated the Revolutionary Guards as a “foreign terrorist organization” as part of efforts to increase international pressure on the Islamic republic.
