Conservative MPs raised concerns about Iran in Parliament a number of times, amid a week of escalating tensions with the country.
Former Defence Minister Rt. Hon. Tobias Ellwood MP asked an Urgent Question on Monday about the security situation in Iran to the Foreign Secretary after Iran admitted its involvement in the shooting down of Ukranian International Airlines flight PS752.
Responding to Mr Ellwood’s concerns that Iran “still wants to advance its sectarian regional influence by funding, training and arming paramilitaries and militias right across the Middle East”, the Foreign Secretary condemned Iran’s “pattern of behaviour… flouting the basic rules of international law”.
CFI’s Parliamentary Chairman (Commons), Rt. Hon. Stephen Crabb MP and CFI Officer Bob Blackman MP urged the Government to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab confirmed that he was “happy to consider” proscription and planned to “keep the issue under very careful review” in light of the IRGC’s “pernicious behaviour”. The Foreign Secretary also announced that the Government would “shortly introduce a new sanctions regime” to “impose asset freezes and visa bans for those responsible for gross human rights abuses” after the UK has left the European Union.
Numerous Conservative MPs raised Iran’s nefarious influence in the region, with Sir Iain Duncan Smith highlighting “it has done nothing else but use its money to provoke violence and escalate trouble and war”, and Mike Wood MP condemning the “pattern of misinformation campaigns coming from Iran to seek to subvert the extent of its actions in the past”.
CFI’s Vice Chairman, John Howell MP, questioned Iran’s commitment to de-escalation after Israeli and British flags were et alight at pro-government demonstrations over the weekend and Robert Halfon MP called on the Government to “support democracy protesters and dissidents in the region”.
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