Dozens of UK lawmakers have urged the government to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, citing the force’s “inhumane and unlawful actions” both in Iran and Britain.
The death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini a year ago sparked months of anti-establishment protests that were brutally quashed by security forces, with hundreds of people being killed and thousands unlawfully detained.
The IRGC are “responsible for the systematic and continued widespread violence” against dissent in Iran, 33 members of the House of Commons and House of Lords said in a letter addressed to Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
“Over the past year, the IRGC has strengthened its ties with various armed groups across Africa, providing them with training and weapons which has in turn fueled instability across the continent,” reads the letter, dated September 29. “The IRGC has also deepened its military relations with Russia during the conflict with Ukraine, supplying Vladimir Putin with lethal weapons.”
The lawmakers also pointed out that the Islamic Republic is “behind at least 15 credible plots to kidnap and assassinate Iranian dissidents or British citizens” over the last year, while family members of Iranian dissidents living in the UK “have also been harassed by the IRGC, threatening their freedom of expression thousands of miles from the regime.”
Meanwhile, British citizens residing in Iran “have been faced with physical and verbal threats and in some cases have even been arrested by the IRGC due to their links to the United Kingdom,” they said, adding: “There needs to be an end to this violence.”
The European Union, the United States, the UK and other countries have issued multiple rounds of sanctions against the Islamic Republic in recent months over its crackdown on dissent and its supply of drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine.
So far, the United States is the only Western country to have labeled the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
Source » iranwire