The British government has announced that it will list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. The decision is being seen as a major step in escalating diplomatic tension with Tehran. The information was confirmed in a report by The Guardian on Monday (July 13).
On this, Britain’s Home Office said any kind of support for the IRGC, an important branch of Iran’s military, would be banned. The government took the decision after a long-running political disagreement. Although in legal terms it is not a direct “proscription” (a ban as a terrorist organization), it will effectively be treated as the same kind of restriction. Alongside the IRGC, the government has also moved to ban the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right (IMCR) and the Russian Federation Volunteer Corps (GRU), which the report described as the international branch of Russia’s military intelligence agency.
In a statement, Britain’s Home Office said that, after reviewing all the evidence, the home secretary had concluded there were sufficient grounds to believe the organizations were involved in activities that threatened Britain’s security on behalf of foreign powers, and that listing them was therefore necessary to protect Britain’s security and national interest. The British government claims the step against the IRGC was taken in the light of several threats and plots carried out on British soil, including an alleged plan to kill two journalists of Iran International Television and cyberattacks against various British institutions.
The report said that with this decision the current government had moved away from the position of the previous Conservative government, which had decided not to ban the IRGC. Once the new decision takes effect, supporting the IRGC in any way will be treated as a criminal offense in Britain. According to analysts, coming amid the ongoing tension between Iran and the United States, the step could further chill Tehran-London relations. British officials had earlier warned that if the IRGC were banned, Iran might expel Britain’s ambassador to Tehran.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report