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Iran

For several years, LFI has warned about the activities and agenda of the Islamic Republic of Iran which not only poses an existential threat to Israel, but also a substantial threat to Britain. 

 

Iran is a hugely destabilising force in the Middle East. Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic revolution was never designed to be confined to within Iran’s borders. Thus, with financial assistance, guidance and training provided by the regime’s ideological warriors, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Tehran has established and commands a broad network of Shia militant proxy armies and terror groups, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Houthis. Iran’s strategic goal is the completion of an “arc of influence” – a land bridge connecting Tehran to the Mediterranean Sea and the Israeli border. The completion of the land link would allow for the free flow of arms, soldiers and oil from Hezbollah in the Golan to Iran, via Syria and Assadist forces and Shia-controlled Iraq. 

 

Alongside its proxy armies, Tehran has a burgeoning ballistic missile arsenal and appears to be actively pursuing a nuclear weapons programme with repeated and continual breaches of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action. These developments are concerning not simply because Iran has the Middle East’s largest and most diverse missile arsenal, with a range of up to 2,000km but because of its status as the only country that openly calls for the annihilation of another state.  

 

The regime’s pernicious activities overseas are matched by a malign record at home. Over the past four decades, Iran’s human rights record has consistently been one of the worst in the world. Dissent is rarely tolerated and ruthlessly put down. In the protests and clampdown which followed the death at the hands of the “morality police” of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022, approximately 500 protesters, including at least 68 children, were killed by the security forces and almost 20,000 people were arrested. In 2023, Iran executed over 700 people – a significant increase on 2022 – with the widespread use of torture; severe restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly and the rights of women; and the targeting of human rights and union activists, lawyers, journalists, students and minorities, including the LGBTQ+ community and religious minorities. 

 

LFI has led the way in calling for the British government to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organisation. Labour supports proscription, and set out the legislative changes necessary to make it happen. Outlining his decision, the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy stated: “The Iranian regime’s actions against courageous protestors seeking a better future, as well as British nationals imprisoned in Iran and its threats to UK security mean robust action is needed now. The IRGC is behaving like a terrorist organisation and must now be proscribed as such.” Labour reiterated its commitment to proscribe the IRGC at LFI’s 2023 annual lunch. 

 

LFI previously played a leading role in the effort to persuade the British government to proscribe Hezbollah in its entirety in the UK, with our former chair, Joan Ryan, at the forefront of parliamentary efforts. This work came to fruition in January 2019, when the government agreed that there was no meaningful distinction between Hezbollah’s political and military wings and proscribed the former. Another former chair, Dame Louise Ellman, repeatedly highlighted – and called for an end to – protestors parading Hezbollah flags at the annual Al-Quds Day march in London. 

 

LFI also works to highlight the danger posed by Iran’s ballistic missile programme. As Michael Herzog, former head of the IDF’s strategic planning and now Israel’s ambassador to the United States, argued in LFI’s publication on Iran, “missiles would serve as the main delivery system for a nuclear weapon. At the same time, missiles, rockets and, increasingly, armed drones are proliferated by Iran as a central tool in its regional power projection.” 

 

Our chair, Steve McCabe MP, led calls for the British government to act before the Iranian missile ban lapsed, as well as raising concerns about the expiry of sanctions covering Tehran’s ballistic missile programme. 

 

LFI has exposed Iran’s appalling human rights record and the past failures of the government to impose Magnitsky sanctions – which are designed to promote human rights and punish corruption. We were pleased that David Lammy has echoed our calls for employing such sanctions.  

Analysis: Tehran plots force Iranian broadcaster from the UK

An independent Iranian TV station has been forced to close its London office and relocate to Washington DC due to threats by the regime in Tehran. The news came as Iran denied it has enriched uranium to 84 percent purity – just short of the level needed to produce an Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years21 February, 2023 ago

In Brief: Iran smuggling advanced drones to Russia for use in Ukraine

Iran’s state airline is being used to smuggle advanced long-range armed drones to Russia for use in Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. The Guardian reported on Monday that some of the drones – at least 18 in total – were transferred to the Russian navy at sea by an Iranian vessel, which Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years14 February, 2023 ago

LFI and CFI chairs: Iranian terror is a clear and present danger to the UK

LFI chair Steve McCabe MP and CFI chair Stephen Crabb MP have written the below article for the Daily Telegraph. Click here to read the original. As it clings on to power with ever greater desperation, deploying unimaginable violence against its own citizens for daring to call for greater freedoms, the Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years13 February, 2023 ago

Lammy assails government inaction on IRGC proscription

The shadow foreign secretary assailed the government’s failure to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in parliament last week. Facing foreign secretary James Cleverly during Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office questions, David Lammy accused the IRGC of being “responsible for 10 kidnap and death plots on British soil, the execution Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years7 February, 2023 ago

Russia and Iran agree deal to build advanced drone factory

Iran and Russia are finalising plans to build an advanced drone factory, according to weekend media reports. The new plant – which will be located nearly 600 miles east of Moscow – is intended to manufacture 6,000 drones for Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years7 February, 2023 ago

Labour MPs push Security Minister to be tougher on Iran at Home Office Questions

At Home Office Questions today, two Labour MPs pushed the government to take a tougher stance against the operation of Iranian agents in the UK, in particular the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the proscription of which is a longstanding LFI policy goal. LFI parliamentary supporter Virendra Sharma MP asked: It Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years6 February, 2023 ago

Iranians accused of torturing protesters sentenced to death

Iranian has been accused of torturing three young men it has sentenced to death for participating in the wave of protests against the regime which have swept the country since last September. A report by Amnesty International issued this week highlights the cases of 19-year-old Mehdi Mohammadifard, 18-year-old Arshia Takdastan Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years31 January, 2023 ago

Israel reportedly behind strike on Iranian missile factory

Israel reportedly carried out a drone strike on a missile facility in the Iranian city of Isfahan late on Saturday night. The strike was launched by the Mossad intelligence service at the facility, which is part of Tehran’s ballistic missile programme. Isfahan plays a central role in the programme and Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years31 January, 2023 ago

In Brief: Iran arrests three female journalists in protests crackdown

Iranian authorities have arrested three female journalists in recent days, local media reported on Monday. The arrests came amid months of protests triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini. Iran has been rocked by protests since the death on 16 September of Amini, a 22-year-old woman of Kurdish Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years ago

In Brief: Amid speculation, Saudis reaffirm commitment to two-state normalisation

Saudi Arabia will not normalise ties with Israel without progress towards a two-state solution with the Palestinians, the kingdom’s top diplomat asserted last week. The comments by Prince Faisal bin Farhan al Saud, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, followed reported discussion of the topic between Israeli prime minister Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years25 January, 2023 ago

Analysis: Tehran executes British national as Labour calls for tougher action

Labour came out in support of proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps this week, as the Iranian regime continues its attempts to crush protestors. What happened On Saturday, Iran announced that it had executed a dual Iranian-British national, Ali Reza Akbari, who had previously served a deputy defence minister, amid Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years ago

Labour backs IRGC proscription for “maximum pressure” on Iran

At a backbench business debate on the treatment of protestors in Iran yesterday, Labour’s shadow minister for the Middle East, Bambos Charalambous MP, called for a “coordinated international approach” to deal with the Iranian regime that would require “maximum pressure” to succeed. In his comments, Charalambous said that a “coordinated Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years12 January, 2023 ago

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