A bipartisan group of 17 lawmakers wrote to U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Wednesday, renewing a call for the U.K. to fully designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.
The U.K. and other U.S. allies’ failures to fully proscribe the IRGC has been an ongoing source of frustration for officials on Capitol Hill — lawmakers sent a similar letter to former U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in March 2023, alongside letters to other U.S. allies. The Labour government, of which Lammy is a part, took power in July.
“We welcome reports that your government is actively exploring options to proscribe the group,” lawmakers wrote in the new letter. “We urge your government to act expeditiously to make an IRGC proscription a reality.”
The lawmakers said that they and the administration are ready to provide “any support” the U.K. may need in pursuing this step, and, “as our close ally and partner, we are eager to see the United Kingdom join this important effort.”
The letter highlights the threat that the IRGC poses to the U.S. and nations across Europe, as well as the U.K., highlighting a series of attacks and attempted attacks by the IRGC on U.K. soil or targeting U.K. citizens.
The officials also noted that the House of Commons voted in January 2023 unanimously in favor of designating the IRGC as a terrorist group and that the Labour Party has supported the prospect in the past.
“While we are pleased to see the additional sanctions the UK has placed on the IRGC, more must be done,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is widely known that the IRGC funds, arms, trains, and provides intelligence to UK-proscribed terrorist organizations like Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). By this measure alone, the United Kingdom should take action to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organization.”
“Combined with the long and growing list of IRGC-related terrorist activities planned, carried out, or thwarted in the UK and across the globe, further action is more than justified,” the letter continues.
The letter was led by Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Brad Schneider (D-IL), and co-signed by Reps. Joe Wilson (R-SC), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Thomas Kean (R-NJ), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), Chris Smith (R-NJ), Mike Levin (D-CA), Maria Salazar (R-FL), Dina Titus (D-NV), Rudy Yakym (R-IN), Nick Langworthy (R-NY), Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) and Greg Steube (R-FL).
Source » jewishinsider