UK Parliament
Conservative MPs called for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be proscribed and raised concerns over human rights abuses by the Iranian regime during Foreign Office Oral Question this week. The contributions came amidst ongoing violent and deadly crackdowns on protests in the country following the murder of Mahsa Amini by Iran’s notorious “Morality Police”.
CFI Officer and Chair of the APPG on Israel, Bob Blackman MP said: “Thousands of Iranians have been arrested for just demonstrating their support for people who have been murdered”. Mr Blackman also referenced a “long list of people who have been sentenced to death just for protesting”, alongside credible reports that British-Iranian journalists have been threatened with fatal repercussions by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Mr Blackman finished by asking the minister “what more does the IRGC have to do before we proscribe it in its entirety”.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for FCDO, David Rutley MP responded: “We have been clear about our concerns about the IRGC’s continued destabilising activity throughout the region. The UK maintains a range of sanctions that work to constrain that destabilising activity”. He added that “the list of proscribed organisations is kept under constant review”.
Gary Sambrook MP also raised concerns over the IRGC’s involvement in suppressing protests in Iran and said: “Not content with being the world’s largest state sponsor of international terrorism, Iran is using its same terror enforcer, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to brutally repress its own people”. He also referenced the reports that the IRGC was not only arming but also training Russian troops in their invasion of Ukraine and asked the Minister whether he “thinks it is now time to proscribe the IRGC”.
CFI Vice-Chair, Rt. Hon. Theresa Villiers MP said that Iran “has one of the worst human rights records in the world” and asked that any renewed nuclear agreement “place strong obligations on Iran to repair its appalling and shocking human rights record”. The Minister for Development, Andrew Mitchell MP responded that “what is going on in Iran is of immense concern to the Government”.
