The UK is set to introduce a landmark law to ban Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), which have been at the centre of Tehran’s violent crackdown of the recent anti-government protests. The Home Office said it was preparing legislation to proscribe hostile state agencies – including the IRGC.
The bill, however, will not be fast-tracked, The Times reports, despite the key role played by the state actors in trying to quash the protests that shook the regime between late December and early January. This comes just hours after the European Union added, on January 29, the IRGC to its terrorist list. Announcing the move, Vice President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas said: “Repression cannot go unanswered”.
The 27-strong bloc now places the IRCG on the same level as al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Ms Kallas said she expected diplomatic channels with Tehran to remain open despite the move, which was branded a “stunt” by Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. He also described the EU’s move as a “major strategic mistake”.
The Home Office has been working on terror-style proscription legislation since May. At the time, the then-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said she was accepting recommendations from Jonathan Hall, the government’s independent adviser on terrorism legislation, to introduce a law that would enable agencies such as the IRGC to be banned.
The legislation being planned would allow more targeted action, including give the police powers to seize passports from individuals suspected of operating for the IRGC.
