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CFI’s Vice Chair Andrew Percy MP and CFI Officer Bob Blackman MP raised concerns about Iran’s malign activities during Business Questions yesterday.
CFI Parliamentary Officer, Bob Blackman MP, praised the letter sent to the Prime Minister signed by 125 cross-party parliamentarians urging the proscription of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and showing solidarity with Vahid Beheshti who is on hunger strike outside the FCDO.
The letter, he noted, “drew attention to the plight of the poor people in Iran, and the need to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in its entirety”. The Harrow East MP called for a debate and vote in Parliament so that the Government can support banning the IRGC and “make it actuality”.
Leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt MP, shared her concern “not just because of the situation in Iran”, “but also because of the situation that we increasingly face in the UK, with people being intimidated, threatened or worse by the regime and its proxies”. The Minister added that “we are all extremely worried about the fact that Mr Beheshti is on the 64th day of his hunger strike”, and that she hopes that he will soon bring his hunger strike to an end although she “understand[s] why he is doing it”.
Andrew Percy MP raised his concerns about the Iranian state-sponsored, Press TV. He highlighted the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s “shocking report” of the online activities of Press TV, including the use of a video series Palestine Declassified “which focuses its hatred on British Jews”. Press TV has also allegedly promoted “claims that Jews were involved in 9/11 and in COVID conspiracies”, and articles stating “that the Holocaust is the greatest lie ever told”. The report, released this week, revealed that over half of the Palestine Declassified videos examined perpetuated antisemitic conspiracy theories and Jewish world domination and calls for Facebook and Twitter to block Press TV publishing content in the UK.
Imran Ahmed, Chief Executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said that “social media companies in Silicon Valley claim to abhor antisemitism, but they have failed to act against Iranian state propagandists”. They have failed to stand with groups “targeted by Iran’s theocratic regime”.
