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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.  

In Brief: Iran unveils ‘longest-range drone in the world’ at parade

Last Friday saw Iran display what it claimed was the “longest-range drone in the world” during a military parade that also featured a number of banners threatening Israel. The drone, one of several unnamed aerial vehicles and missiles presented at an event marking the start of Iran’s war with Iraq between Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years26 September, 2023 ago

In Brief: Palestinian terrorists better armed than PA security forces

The UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, reported that terror groups in the West Bank are currently better armed than the Palestinian Authority security forces. He told the World Summit of Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya that there is a “very significant uptick in the availability of very Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years18 September, 2023 ago

Analysis: Iranian threat at all time high one year after protests began

One year on from the death in Iranian police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, Iran remains an international pariah posing threats on numerous fronts. What happened Crackdown Meanwhile… International actionIn the absence of a revived nuclear deal with Iran – an ambition Joe Biden campaigned on in 2020, but which has been Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years18 September, 2023 ago

Yvette Cooper sets out plans to proscribe Iranian Revolutionary Guards

Shadow Home Secretary and LFI parliamentary supporter Yvette Cooper MP has reiterated Labour’s intention to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation should it come to government after the next election. In a speech today at the Royal United Services Institute, Yvette set out Labour’s vision Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years17 July, 2023 ago

David Lammy sets out Labour’s concerns on IRGC and Iran’s nuclear programme

In his response to this afternoon’s statement on Iran, Shadow Foreign Secretary and LFI parliamentary supporter David Lammy MP made clear that the government must go further to deal with the threats posed to the UK and Israel by the Iranian regime. Lammy set out the case against Tehran: “In Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years6 July, 2023 ago

In Brief: Palestinian Islamic Jihad chief boasts of presence in West Bank

The leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed terror group based in Gaza, has boasted in an interview that his group was working to establish cells of fighters in the West Bank. In an interview released on Saturday, Ziad Nakhaleh said that Iran’s head of state Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years4 July, 2023 ago

LFI chair: UK Government must act before Iran missile ban lapses

LFI chair Steve McCabe MP has written the below article for the Jewish Chronicle. Click here to read the original. Iran possesses the largest and potentially most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East. Yet incredibly, in October, Britain and our European allies are set to end all sanctions relating Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years29 June, 2023 ago

LFI chair writes to Foreign Secretary on “massive boost” for Iran’s missiles

Click here for a PDF copy of the above: Letter to Rt Hon James Cleverly M.P Today, LFI chair Steve McCabe MP has written to the Foreign Secretary raising questions and concerns around the government’s strategy towards Iran, and particularly the expiry of sanctions regarding Tehran’s ballistic missile programme later Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years27 June, 2023 ago

In Brief: Iran-backed terror plot against Jews foiled in Cyprus and Greece

An Israeli real estate businessman and a Chabad House, as well as hotels and entertainment venues frequented by Israeli tourists have been revealed as being the targets of an Iranian-planned attack in Cyprus. Greek intelligence services reportedly also arrested seven Pakistani nationals who were recruited by Iran to carry out Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years26 June, 2023 ago

LFI parliamentarians attend briefing with Israeli Intelligence Minister

This afternoon, Israel’s Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel gave a briefing to a group of cross-party parliamentarians, organised by the UK-Israel APPG. A number of LFI parliamentarians attended the briefing, with discussion and questions on a range of issues, particularly the need for the UK government to proscribe Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years22 June, 2023 ago

In Brief: Iran praises Palestinian terrorism as leaders visit Tehran

The leaders of Palestinian terror groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas were in Tehran yesterday for talks with top Iranian officials. Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi received Islamic Jihad chief Ziad Nakhaleh, while Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met Ali Akbar Ahmadian, the newly appointed secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. “The Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years21 June, 2023 ago

LFI MPs sign cross-party letter on UK university support for Iranian drone development

A number of LFI MPs have today added their names to a cross-party letter addressed to Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch, calling on the government to investigate allegations in the Jewish Chronicle that scientists at British universities have been helping Iran develop technology that could be used to upgrade Read more…

By lfiIsrael, 2 years20 June, 2023 ago

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