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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.  

Metropolitan police confirm to LFI vice-chair Hezbollah flags can be flown on Al-Quds day due to government policy

In a letter to Louise Ellman MP, vice-chair of LFI, Commander Jane Connors of the Metropolitan police confirmed that the Hezbollah flag can be flown at this year’s Al-Quds day protest in London as the terror group’s “political wing” is not proscribed by parliament. The letter makes clear that it Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 7 years30 May, 2018 ago

Analysis: Trump should mend, not end, the Iran nuclear deal

  President Trump’s decision yesterday to pull the US out of the Iran nuclear agreement deals a severe, possibly fatal, blow to the 2015 agreement which aims to prevent the Islamic republic from resuming its nuclear programme. Trump says he will reimpose sanctions on Iran, which were lifted in return Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 7 years10 May, 2018 ago

Louise Ellman urges action on Al Quds Day demonstration

LFI vice-chair Louise Ellman MP has written to the home secretary, Sajid Javid MP, and Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick, regarding the upcoming Al Quds Day demonstration. You can read her letters here.

By lfiIsrael, 7 years2 May, 2018 ago

Analysis: Iran’s Syria threat to Israel

  An Iranian drone which entered Israeli airspace in February was carrying explosives, it was revealed on Friday. The attempted attack – the explosives were sufficient to cause damage, although the precise target remains unknown – represents the first direct attack by the Islamic republic on Israel. It also indicates that Iranian Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 7 years18 April, 2018 ago

Analysis: Iran and Israel face off over Syria

  Despite the shock which accompanied it, there was an inevitability to the confrontation between Israel and Iran which took place over the skies of Syria and northern Israel last weekend. This may, moreover, be simply a harbinger of more – and worse – to come. The events unfolded in Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 7 years14 February, 2018 ago

Analysis: The campaign to ban Hezbollah continues

The campaign to persuade the government to proscribe Hezbollah in its entirety will continue, LFI chair Joan Ryan has pledged following last week’s debate in parliament. At the end of the three-hour debate secured by Ms Ryan, Home Office minister Ben Wallace rejected calls from across the House to extend Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 7 years2 February, 2018 ago

Analysis: We must ban Hezbollah in its entirety

LFI chair Joan Ryan will tomorrow lead a debate in the House of Commons calling on the government to proscribe Hezbollah in its entirety. The terror group’s military wing has been banned in the UK since 2001, but its so-called political wing is still legal. As Ms Ryan will argue Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 7 years24 January, 2018 ago

Analysis: Iranians protest the cost of regime’s foreign wars

  The new year political unrest in Iran is not unprecedented. Three times in the last two decades, the Islamic regime has faced mass protests. In July 1999, students took to the streets to demand freedom of speech, while, 10 years later, the Green Movement saw demonstrations against the vote-rigging Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 7 years12 January, 2018 ago

LFI secures parliamentary debate on Hezbollah proscription

LFI chair Joan Ryan has secured a cross-party parliamentary debate on the proscription of Hezbollah on Thursday 25 January. LFI has long called for the complete proscription of the terrorist group Hezbollah. Currently, the UK only proscribes Hezbollah’s ‘military wing’, but not its ‘political wing’. The UK’s distinction is not Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 7 years11 January, 2018 ago

Ambassador Mark Regev’s Speech to LFI Annual Lunch 2017

*** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY *** HMA Mark Regev, Israeli Ambassador, speech to Labour Friends of Israel Annual Lunch 2017  Chief Rabbi, Lords and Ladies, Members of Parliament, Distinguished guests, It is a real pleasure to be back here at Central Hall for LFI’s Annual Lunch. I would like to begin by Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 8 years30 November, 2017 ago

Joan Ryan MP, LFI chair, speech to LFI Annual Lunch 2017

Rt Hon Joan Ryan MP, LFI chair, speech to Labour Friends of Israel Annual Lunch 2017  Chief Rabbi, Ambassador Regev, friends Thank you to all of you for being here today. In particular, I want to thank Sir David Garrard and Isaac Kaye, our long-standing lunch sponsors. I also want to Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 8 years28 November, 2017 ago

Analysis: Iran secures “arc of influence”

  Iran is this week on the verge of completing its much-vaunted “arc of influence” – a land bridge connecting Tehran to the Mediterranean Sea and the border with Israel – with the capture of the Syrian border down of al-Bukamal, close to the frontier with Iraq. The Islamic republic’s Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 8 years23 November, 2017 ago

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