Braverman says Foreign Office fought against IRGC becoming a proscribed terrorist group
FORMER Home Secretary Suella Braverman has revealed that civil servants were “hellbent” against the UK government proscribing the IRGC.
Speaking on GB News, she said: “It’s disgraceful, frankly, that this government is refusing to take action to proscribe the IRGC, and really, their actions speak much more loudly than their words. So warm words and ‘we stand with the people’ and hashtags and whatnot and other symbolic gestures mean nothing at this critical time.
“Frankly, the previous Conservative government should have proscribed the IRGC; it was something I lobbied for in government but I was blocked.
“It was largely the civil servants. I’m often reluctant to blame civil servants, but the Foreign Office mandarins had a collective view that proscribing the IRGC would be detrimental to the British national interest, and they were just hellbent against it.
“No Prime Minister really gripped it, and no Foreign Secretary really was strong enough to go against that civil service view.
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“They would debate that it was a terrorist organisation, first of all, something that was based on very flimsy ground given that we know the IRGC funds groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and jihadist groups around the world.
“But secondly, they would also say that it would be important to obtain diplomatic relations with Tehran because the IRGC was the ruling party of the country, so it was a bit different to a terrorist group, so to speak.
“And they said, because of that, diplomatic relations, access to allies, if there are any in Iran, was really important, and proscribing would cut off all of that vital access. I heavily disputed that claim, but unfortunately, mandarins won the day on that.
“Actually, the UK is on the receiving end of a big threat posed by the IRGC. When I was Home Secretary I was dealing with the direct effects of IRGC actions. There were IRGC proxies who were intimidating people, threatening to kidnap people and carry out criminal acts in the UK, on UK soil.
“The director general of MI5, Ken McCallum, has been very open about the threat posed to the UK and UK nationals in our country by the IRGC; Iran International was the case in point.
“A dissident Iranian broadcaster had an office in London, and when I was Home Secretary that broadcasters and people who worked at that TV show were intimidated by IRGC proxies. They were forced to shut down and move their location, despite the extra security that we put on.
“But that was a real example, a real-world example on UK soil of what the IRGC and their proxies are willing to do.
“There’s direct thuggery on individuals and kidnapping threats, but there’s also obviously the terrorism threat. This is an Islamist extremist terrorist organisation, and Hamas is funded by them; Palestine Action, all these sorts of extremist groups that we proscribe and are very happy to call terrorists are funded, indirectly or directly, by the IRGC.
“Extremist preachers, other terrorist activity in the UK and around the world, has often a link to the IRGC. I often call it the head of the snake, because if you trace back far enough, you will find Iran and the IRGC as a supporter, sponsor or funder of very, very dangerous activity.
“Mandarins would say to us that, well, the Americans now regret their decision to have proscribed the IRGC because they’ve lost valuable relationships with insiders in Iran, and they really are warning the UK not to go down the same path.
“I think that was all rubbish, frankly. They just didn’t want to take a step, which I think they thought was slightly unorthodox. The whole mentality, really, of Foreign Office civil servants is not one of muscularity, it’s not one of robustness. It’s not really one that puts the British national interest first.”
