Rishi Sunak’s has been urged by Tory MPs to declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organisation after it acknowledged responsibility for a fatal missile strike on Kurds in Iraq.
Bob Blackman, who has lobbied for the designation in respect of the IRGC for several years, told Express.co.uk the “evidence was clear”, while Foreign Services Committee chairwoman Alicia Kearns, speaking today, said such action was “necessary”.
Both were speaking at a time of heightened tensions with Iran, led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which has launched similar attacks on several of its neighbours in recent days, notably the Baluchistan region of Pakistan.
Closer to home, a recent video showing an IRGC general calling for an apocalyptic war on Jews in a speech to UK students has prompted widespread condemnation.
Harrow East Mr Blackman said: “These incidents add to the long list of atrocities committed by the IRGC.
“The evidence is clear; the IRGC should be proscribed in its entirety and its assets sequestrated for the benefit of the oppressed civilians in Iran.
“The Government has deliberated on this for far too long. Now is the time to call out the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.”
Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, Ms Kearns likewise backed a similarly tough line – while stressing the decision was “not straightforward”.
She explained: “Iran will see this as an act of war. Yes, we will likely have to close our embassy on the ground.”
A motion to urge the Government to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist group passed unanimously in the House of Commons in January 2023.
The Government has repeatedly said the IRGC as an organisation has been sanctioned along with its individual members but has stopped short of proscribing the group.
Ms Kearns, the Tory MP for Rutland and Melton, made her remarks during a debate on the situation in the Red Sea, where the UK has joined US forces in striking Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen who have been targeting ships in the area.
She said: “This may be called a debate on the Red Sea but really we are talking about Iran. When it comes to Iran, my assessment – and colleagues may differ – is that Iran is willing to do everything but reach outright warfare.
“They will industrialise sub-threshold conflict and they will seek chaos wherever they are. But my worry is that their current appetite, where they have set their threshold as being just below outright warfare, is too high.”
Emphasising that “all roads lead to Iran”, she added: “The Houthis are only one of Iran’s proxies and allies… and I believe the Houthis to be more of a disobedient ally rather than a direct proxy because the command and control is not as significant as it is, for example, with Hezbollah.”
Ms Kearns also named Hamas, Iraqi Shia militias and the Assad regime in Syria as Iranian proxies and allies.
She said the IRGC taking responsibility for an airstrike on Erbil in the Kurdistan region of Iraq is a “step change”, giving “more credence” to calls to proscribe the IRGC.
She said: “I will hesitate to talk too much about IRGC proscription because I feel like I may steal other colleagues’ sandwiches, so I will leave that with them.
“But I think that the record is well known on this House as to the position. We need to take action against the IRGC.”
Ms Kearns also said she is “gravely concerned” that the “threat to the UK from Iran” at home is not being taken “seriously enough”, adding: “We are not doing enough to tackle transnational repression in the UK.”
Express.co.uk has contacted the Foreign Office to ask what the IRGC’s current classification is.
