Lib Dem peer joins calls for government to ban Iran’s Revolutionary Guard

A Liberal Democrat peer has joined calls for the government to proscribe the political enforcement branch of Iran’s armed forces.

In a House of Lords debate Lord Monroe Palmer of Child’s Hill said the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “represents a present danger to anyone the Iranian regime believes is a threat. ”

The peer, who is Jewish,  called for the IRGC to be banned by the UIK government ” to protect civilians outside Iran as well as those within Iran?”.

Responding for the government Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon accepted the “destabilising activities of the IRGC” and pointed to sanctions in place on Iran “including those restricting the destabilising activities of the Revolutionary Guard.”

Lord Ahmad added”all issues such as proscribing organisations” were “on the table” with the government, but refused to give Lord Palmer any assurance about time frames.

Iranians have mounted protests over the last month following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman arrested by the IRGC in Tehran on the 13th of September.

She had been accused of breaching Iran’s strict rules requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab or headscarf.