The rope tightens on the neck of the mullahs’ regime: A British threat to include the Revolutionary Guards on terror lists

Nora Bandari

British lawmakers responded to a call by Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi to include the Guard and the Ministry of Intelligence in the terrorism list. On September 19, 37 parliamentarians said they supported draft resolution No. 2333.

The British MP Bob Blackman, the main sponsor of the draft resolution, said that the West should make clear to officials of the Iranian regime, that the free world stands with the Iranian people and the People’s Mujahedeen Organization and the National Council of Resistance, as well as supports their efforts to achieve freedom, democracy and human rights in their country.

The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence is the focus of internal repression, and their efforts under the leadership of the mullahs’ regime are seeking to cause an international crisis by resorting to increased aggression in the region and spreading terrorism in Europe.

The MP stressed that the long-term interests of the British and Iranian peoples are linked to confronting and stopping the unacceptable behavior of the Revolutionary Guards.

David Ames, co-chairman of the British Parliamentary Committee for Free Iran, said that draft resolution 2333 enjoys the support of many deputies from various parties in the House of Commons to include the IRGC and the Ministry of Intelligence as terrorist organizations because Iran’s future is decided by the people and its organized resistance movement.

Therefore, the MPs continue to call on the British government and the European Union to develop a firm policy towards the Iranian regime, which supports the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people and their resistance movement and their right to bring about democratic change in their country.

Washington precedes

It is worth mentioning that on April 8, Washington announced the inclusion of the “Iranian Revolutionary Guards” on the list of terrorist organizations, and US President Donald Trump considered in press statements that the Revolutionary Guards actively participate in financing and supporting terrorism as a tool of the Iranian state, stressing that the United States will continue financial and economic pressure on Iran and increase the cost of its support for terrorist activities.

In addition, this is the first time that Washington has officially designated a military force in another country as a terrorist group. Earlier, the United States blacklisted dozens of entities and individuals for belonging to the Revolutionary Guards, the most important of which was the inclusion of the Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force in charge of its foreign operation on their blacklists in 2007; because of its support for terrorism.

Motivated British decision

Firas Elias, a researcher specializing in national security and Iranian studies, explains that the British draft resolution to include the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on the list of terrorist organizations in the UK came to add another file of complex files in the political relations between Iran and Britain, and it seems that the decision is a political desire on the part of Britain to pressure Iran further to release the British tanker Sita Ambro, which the Revolutionary Guards have been holding in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz two months ago.

Elias said in a statement to the Reference that despite the generalization of the areas of the British resolution, which pointed out that the main reasons behind the legislation of this resolution, is the destabilizing behavior of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the Middle East, as well as its role in the suppression of freedoms, but the external dimension is strongly present in pushing for the legislation, as there is no secret that there is an intelligence conflict within Iran, between the IRGC intelligence service and the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and National Security.