Government ministers are apparently split over whether to ban Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
A report in The Sun newspaper claims that proposals to proscribe the IRGC have been blocked by Foreign Secretary James Cleverly despite mounting pressure from MPs to ban Iran’ militia group.
Security minister Tom Tugendhat and Home Secretary Suella Braverman both want to declare the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terror organisation. But according to the report, senior Conservative MPs have accused the Foreign Secretary of being “too closely led by officials” and should overrule anyone advising him against the move. However defenders of Mr Cleverly say intelligence gathering is more important than the gesture.
In February, a joint statement by Labour Friends of Israel and Conservative Friends of Israel said the continuing failure to proscribe the IRGC is “indefensible”. It stated, “It is now brazenly conducting ever more activities in the UK, presenting a clear and immediate threat.”
The benefits of proscription are many. Criminalising the IRGC would decisively curtail its activities in the UK – disrupting funding streams, and ending its attempts to promote home-grown extremism. There is near unanimous support for proscription in Parliament. It has united members in a way that precious few issues do. It is not lost on British parliamentarians that the IRGC was behind a recent foiled plot to kill cross-party MPs at an opposition rally in Paris. A Government’s number one duty is to protect its citizens. It is time that our Government got on with that task.
MPs voted to follow the United States and proscribe the IRGC in January but despite Whitehall pressure from the Home Office, the Foreign Office are holding firm.
IRGC should be banned in the UK
The IRGC represents a threat to UK citizens, the British Jewish Community, other UK nationals with connections to Israel and general British interests with the Middle East and Gulf states.
Hamas and Hezbollah are both listed as terrorist groups. The IRGC should be also.
The IRGC supports, arms, trains and funds other terrorist organisations including Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the terror group that was responsible for firing over 1000 rockets indiscriminately into Israeli civilian areas earlier this month.
Under the Terrorism Act 2000, the UK government may proscribe an organisation if a group: “commits or participates in acts of terrorism; prepares for terrorism; promotes or encourages terrorism (including the unlawful glorification of terrorism); or is otherwise concerned in terrorism.”
The IRGC meets all these criteria.
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