‘At Last the IRGC is Banned, but the Iran Threat Remains’ | Politics | News

Today is an important moment in the UK’s fight against terrorism and the threat posed to the UK by the Jewish community from Iran’s brutal regime, particularly the deployment of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

I welcome this vital step to counter the malign influence of the Islamic Republic in the UK, which was banned just days after the new National Security (State Threats) Act was passed.

Iran’s blood-soaked regime, which oppresses and murders its own people at home and spreads terror abroad, has been targeting the Jewish community in England and Iranian dissidents for years, with the evil hand of the Revolutionary Guards. The Labor Party promised this measure in opposition, and we delivered in government.

As the Jewish community in Britain knows only too well, there is nothing theoretical about the threat posed by Tehran’s terror army. Last year, MI5 reported that they had pursued at least 20 “potentially lethal” plots supported by Tehran in one year alone.

Through the brutal and fanatic Revolutionary Guard, the Ayatollahs have planned assassinations on British soil, harassed dissidents and dissidents seeking refuge there, taken UK citizens hostage, and supported armed groups that threaten our allies and interests. They were behind a series of antisemitic attacks on Britain’s Jewish community in recent months.

These include a firebomb attack on the Kenton United Synagogue near Harrow in north-west London. He also admitted setting fire to four ambulances in Golders Green and a failed drone attack on the Israeli embassy in west London.

Therefore, I welcome the decision to identify the attacks in the Persian-language media, as well as the Movement of Islamic Right Companions (IMCR), which has publicly claimed responsibility for these attacks. But as the government rightly noted: “Behind the IMCR sat members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, who were almost certainly directing IMCR attacks across Europe.”

Banning the Revolutionary Guard was never going to be easy. As an arm of the Iranian regime, it was simply not possible to ban it as a terrorist organization under existing legislation.

Not only does he act on behalf of the regime as the world’s largest exporter of terrorism, but he also operates as a massive business empire, an engineering expert, and even an illegal drug trafficker.

Therefore, new laws were needed to go after Tehran’s terrorist apparatus.

This step is not a symbolic gesture. The Revolutionary Guard was already sanctioned in the UK. But the sanctions did not cover the IRGC’s strategy to nurture Islamist extremism based here in Britain and to identify and register potential new recruits on British soil. Additionally, while sanctions primarily target the financial activities of an organization or individual, the scope of these sanctions is much broader and includes membership and support of a terrorist organization.

Equally important, this incident sends a clear message to the theocratic regime in Iran that terrorism and militancy perpetrated through the Revolutionary Guard will not be tolerated.

This is a great victory for Labor Friends of Israel. We have long called for the appointment of the Revolutionary Guard to recognize the regime’s crimes against humanity and to protect Britons from this threat.

Building on today’s vital action, I call on the government to take further action against Iran’s malign influence in the UK. These include the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador and the supreme leader’s representative in the United Kingdom; Identifying and dismantling soft influence networks in the UK that advance the regime’s objectives under the guise of cultural, academic, charitable or media activities; and sanctioning Iranian regime oligarchs, elites and proxies in the UK.

The Islamic Republic is ruthless in its efforts to destabilize the UK and will seek other ways to work against us. We must be vigilant and proactive in combating this clear and present danger to our country, our communities at home, and our allies abroad.