The Takeaway: Israel looks to mediate Saudi, Emirati anger over Iran deal

Al-Monitor – Bennett boosts profile as mediator. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met Tuesday in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh for a trilateral summit with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, just weeks after his surprise visit to Moscow to help mediate Russia’s war on Ukraine (as we reported here). While the crisis in Ukraine was among the topics discussed, anger from the Gulf over US efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal dominated the agenda. Though Saudi officials weren’t physically present in Sharm el-Sheikh, “their views were well represented, with their anger and fear over the imminent deal with Iran echoing Israel’s,” scoops Ben Caspitin his article on the summit.

‘Tremendous anger’ at IRGC delisting. Recent reports that Washington may remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from its list of terrorist organizations as part of a renewed deal “have caused tremendous anger in many Middle Eastern capitals, especially in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates,” writes Caspit. Bennett and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid went as far as to issue a joint statement on the topic on March 19, saying, “We refuse to believe that the United States would remove [the IRGC’s] designation as a terrorist organization.”

Is terror designation a ‘false issue’? In an interview for Al-Monitor’s “On the Middle East” podcast last week, Mark Fitzpatrick, an associate fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, recalls that former President Donald Trump applied the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation to the IRGC “in a political context,” whereby he was “trying to put a roadblock to his successor in any effort to restore” the deal. Fitzpatrick calls the designation a “false issue,” since “the deal to restore the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) has to lift all sanctions which would impede implementation of the deal.” And the United States has other terrorism- and sanctions-related sanctions on Iran, outside the JCPOA. In addition to its military role, the IRGC has a massive economic footprint and thus would need to be addressed in any effort to revive the deal.

Mixed signals? Just hours after the Bennett-Lapid statement, Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz issued a statement of his own. Gantz, who notably did not sign on to the prime minister’s document, “emphasized the importance of deepening cooperation between the US, Israel and regional partners in the face of ongoing Iranian aggression.”

Having it both ways. The “somewhat contradictory” statement by Gantz did not lead to a “political crisis,” according to Caspit, yet it does show that “the Israeli government is trying to play both sides as it contends with the Iran agreement.” While Bennett’s rhetoric can help appease Emirati and Saudi anger, Gantz meanwhile “concentrates on the day after and Israel’s vital security and defense ties with the United States.”