During an interview with NBC News aired on Wednesday’s edition of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is a terrorist organization, but responded to a question on whether they’ll remain one under a revival of the Iran nuclear deal by saying that he didn’t want to get into the details of talks. Blinken also stated that he isn’t strongly optimistic that a new deal will be struck and that time to reach an agreement is running out.
Host Andrea Mitchell asked, “Is Iran’s Revolutionary Guard — which has attacked Americans and our allies — are they a terrorist organization?”
Blinken responded, “So, they are. And –.”
Mitchell then cut in to ask, “Will they continue to be?”
Blinken responded, “I’m not going to get into the details of where we are in the negotiations. I would say simply that I’m not overly optimistic at the prospects of actually getting an agreement to conclusion, despite all of the efforts we’ve put into it and despite the fact that I believe we would be — our security would be better off. We’re not there. … And time is getting extremely short.”
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