A clear message to Iran’s terror army

It seems strange to label a 250,000-strong chunk of a nation’s armed forces as a terrorist entity, but if recent reports are to be believed, that is exactly what the UK will do when it comes to Iran.

Almost 10 years ago, the Zionist Federation began calling for Tehran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to be proscribed by the UK government.

Doing so would limit its supporters’ ability to navigate the world, either physically or financially.

Since then, calls have grown. The Israel Britain Alliance, led by a former MP, has prioritised proscription, while in recent years lobby group Conservative Friends of Israel has picked up the baton.

And last weekend, in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Reza Pahlavi – the son and heir to the last Shah of Iran who has been living in exile since his father was deposed by the current regime in 1979, urged the UK government to “understand” the impact a full ban of the IRGC would have domestically in Iran. It would have the effect, he said, of “pulling out the biggest tooth the regime has”.

The UK already sanctions the IRGC. Calling it a terrorist unit makes it a criminal offence to belong to the group, attend its meetings, or carry its logo in public.

The IRGC was founded as an ideological custodian of Iran’s 1979 revolution but has since morphed into a major military, political and economic force in the country.

According to analysts, it attacks Western oil tankers, shoots down Western drones over international waters, coordinates air strikes on Saudi oilfields and orders its Shia militia proxies to destabilise an entire region, to name but some of its hobbies and interests. Oh, and it is also a deadly adversary of Israel’s.

The UK government’s proscription of the IRGC – if that is what it is – has been rightly welcomed by Jewish community leaders. Its real-world effect may ultimately prove negligible, but as a signal to Israel and the Middle East as to where the UK sits, it speaks volumes.