A prominent British politician has called for further pressure upon his government to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.
David Jones, a former British minister, voiced his concerns in an op-ed published in The Telegraph, emphasizing the need to go beyond current sanctions and formally recognize the IRGC's status as a threat to national security.
For several years, Jones, along with other British parliamentarians, has advocated for the IRGC to be proscribed as a foreign terrorist organization. Recent developments suggest that the UK's Home Secretary Suella Braverman is taking these concerns seriously, with reports indicating heightened Iranian agent activities inside the UK. These activities are believed to involve collaboration with criminal networks targeting political opponents, making the IRGC a top-tier threat to the UK's national security.
In recent years, the IRGC's role in suppressing dissent among the Iranian population has become increasingly evident. The November 2019 nationwide anti-regime uprising saw the IRGC ruthlessly quelling protests, resulting in the deaths of 1,500 protesters in five days.
Over the past year, the IRGC's brutal tactics have led to the deaths of hundreds of regime opponents, mostly at the hands of the IRGC itself, during Iran's latest uprising that began in September. These fatalities have been accompanied by roughly 30,000 arrests.
In a parliamentary session in June, members of the British Parliament expressed their concerns over the IRGC's terrorist activities and global threats, including those within the UK, calling for its formal designation as a terrorist organization.