This week, CFI Honorary President Lord Polak CBE co-signed a letter published in The Times, calling on the UK Government to “stop Iran from increasing its arms capabilities and further destabilising the Middle East”.
Lord Polak, together with Labour peer Lord Turnberg, urged the UK to “unite the U.S. and Europe against Iranian aggression”, by “extending the arms embargo, demanding Iran sign up to the arms trade treaty and proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps”.
They condemned the “inaction” of European countries “to prevent the end of sanctions on Iranian conventional weapons”.
The parliamentarians underlined: “The UK has never stomached appeasement and it must act now to confront Iran’s terrorism-sponsoring regime”.
The UN conventional arms embargo on Iran is set to expire on 18th October 2020 in line with the sunset clauses in UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) Nuclear Deal.
Conservative parliamentarians have raised concerns over the upcoming expiry, with Lord Polak penning a letter alongside CFI Parliamentary Chairmen Rt. Hon. Stephen Crabb MP and Rt. Hon. The Lord Pickles MP to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab following the UK’s “deeply regrettable” decision to abstain on a recent UN Security Council Resolution to extend the arms embargo.
