Leaders in the British Jewish community are urging the government to ban the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) under terrorism legislation.
Noting the violent organization's support for terrorism and its attacks on Jewish targets internationally, the leaders' call occurred as Foreign Secretary James Cleverly confirmed that the IRGC has been placed under sanctions “in its entirely” by the British government, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
In December, the UK government said that it would penalize Iranian officials for human rights abuses.
But Jewish groups said that the government needed to do more and called for banning the IRGC as it is “no different from the likes of Isis or Al-Qaeda,” according to the news outlet.
The IRGC has been listed as a foreign terrorist entity by the United States since 2019.
In December, several countries in the European Union demanded that the EU designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization. Among the countries leading the demand were Germany and the Netherlands, with Germany accused the IRGC of being behind multiple attempted terrorist attacks against synagogues.
Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl called for the IRGC to be banned.
“We commend the government for its sanctions against the IRGC. We hope the government will now move towards full proscription of this violent and antisemitic organization,” she told the news outlet.
Jewish Leadership Council co-Chief Executive Claudia Mendoza agreed, saying the proscription of the IRGC was “long overdue.”
Liberal-Democrat peer Lord Palmer, a vice president of the Jewish Leadership Council, said in the House of Lords on October 13 that the IRGC “represents a present danger to anyone the Iranian regime believes is a threat.”
“The Revolutionary Guard’s violent oppression against dissidents inside Iran has long extended beyond Iran’s borders. This summer’s attempted murder of Sir Salman Rushdie, last year’s attempted kidnapping of Iranian women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad and numerous foiled plots are only the tip of the iceberg… Does the Minister agree that now is the time to proscribe the Revolutionary Guard to protect civilians outside Iran as well as those within Iran?”