UK to designate IRGC as terrorist group, Iran rejects
The designation would mean it is a crime to belong to the IRGC, attend its meetings and support it or even carry its logo.
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Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Source: NYT.
The UK has decided that Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard is to be declared a terrorist group as Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, and Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, are advocating for it, according to The Telegraph.
The designation would mean it would become a crime to belong to the IRGC, attend its meetings and support it or even carry its logo.
The US and Canada, the UK’s partners in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, have already designated it alongside Australia and New Zealand.
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MI5 director general, Ken McCallum, claimed last November of terrorist activities allegedly planned by the group: “Iran projects threat to the UK directly, through its aggressive intelligence services. At its sharpest, this includes ambitions to kidnap or even kill British or UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the regime. We have seen at least ten such potential threats since January alone.”
The decision back in 2019 by then-US president Donald Trump to designate the IRGC as terrorists backfired with the then-Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, who accused Trump of being a “leader of world terrorism."
It continues to backfire as shows for support of the IRGC have risen over recent years in the UK, noting that the IRGC flag was raised during an anti-"Israel" demonstration in Trafalgar Square in May 2021.
Back in March, media reports revealed that the Biden administration was discussing a plan to remove the IRGC from their list of terrorist organizations - this opted "Israel" to rage over such news, arguing that "the attempt to delist the IRGC as a terrorist organization is an insult to the victims and would ignore documented reality supported by unequivocal evidence."
Iran speaks up
Tory MP and parliamentary commons chairman of Conservative Friends of "Israel", Stephen Crabb, stated that the UK's decision to designate the group is welcomed, as he told The Telegraph: “This would be a very welcome move. It is a step that a number of our key allies have already taken. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is playing a key role in supporting and facilitating the Iranian regime’s destabilizing activities in the Middle East and beyond."
Crabb added: “It is very, very clear that the international community needs to take much stronger and clear-sighted action against Iran.”
Iranian politicians and officials not only refused to accept the possible designation but defended the IRGC as a valid and legitimate extension of the state.
Read more: IRGC arrests British spy network in Kerman Province
Per The Telegraph, a government spokesman said: “While the Government keeps the list of proscribed organizations under review, we do not comment on whether a specific organization is or is not being considered for proscription.”
In a statement last September, the IRGC stated it valued the "insight of the Iranian people" and their unyielding to "the enemy's organized conspiracy against Iran's security," considering that "the current strife aims to avenge the steadfastness, development, success, and strategic achievements of the Iranian people."
