OPINION: A brazen defiance deserving western wrath
Tehran’s defiance of both public and private warnings from London, Berlin and Paris underlines once again its status as an international pariah
The long-expected news that Iran has exported more than 200 ballistic missiles to bolster Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has rightly earned a swift and strong condemnation – and tough new sanctions – from Foreign Secretary David Lammy and our allies in the US, France and Germany.
The latest sanctions announced by the government – which target a number of key players and organisations involved in facilitating Iran’s military support for Russia and, by restricting national carrier Iran Air, will also begin the termination of all direct air services between the UK and Iran – add to the more than 400 sanction designations in place on Iranian individuals and entities.
Tehran’s defiance of both public and private warnings from London, Berlin and Paris underlines once again its contempt for western opinion and its status as an international pariah. Iran – which has already supplied Russia with hundreds of deadly “suicide drones” – remains the only country in the world besides North Korea which is willingly and directly helping Putin’s war machine butcher Ukrainians.
It demonstrates that, despite the election of a “reformist” as president, hardliners led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remain firmly in the driving seat.
And it shows what we have long known: that Tehran isn’t just a threat to Israel and our allies in the Middle East. It also presents a growing danger to our security and that of our European partners and friends. Iran’s arsenal of ballistic missiles – the biggest in the Middle East – has a range that can reach NATO and EU territory. At the same time, Iran’s breakout time – the time required to produce sufficient weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon – is now “probably one of two weeks”, the US Secretary of State suggested in July.
Nor should we be in any doubt that Moscow and Tehran’s blood-soaked alliance is set to grow still stronger. Barely two weeks after the 7 October attacks, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that a comprehensive strategic partnership between Russia and Iran – “a new big treaty,” in his boastful words – was “at an advanced stage” and “85 percent agreed”.
Reports from Iran and Russia suggest that it will be signed at a meeting of the BRICs (group of major emerging economies,) next month – just after the 7 October anniversary. We can expect silence from fellow BRIC member South Africa, which has loudly led the international effort to falsely accuse Israel of genocide.
And, of course, in the UK, Tehran is engaged in a multitude of nefarious activities. Since the start of 2022, the previous government confirmed in January, there have been “at least 15 credible threats and plots” to kill British or UK-based individuals by the Iranian regime. At the same time, Iran’s ideological centres in the UK – which operate through a network of mosques, community centres and charities – are promoting its violent and extremist ideology and working to foster antisemitism and hatred.
That’s why – as part of our efforts to fight the scourge of anti-Zionist antisemitism at home – LFI advocates measures to counter Iran’s support for radicalisation, including a ban on entry permits to Iranian extremists, and the closure of those ideological centres propagating the regime’s violent and extremist ideology. We also support a drive to identify and sanction Iranian regime oligarchs, elites and proxies in the UK, treating them in the same manner as Putin’s regime.
But, as a new LFI paper on Iran’s Axis of Resistance details at the heart of Tehran’s effort to spread violence and bloodshed across continents rests the increasingly radical Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The ideological vanguard of the Iranian regime, it was founded on a mission to secure and export Iran’s “Islamic revolution”, and sees itself engaged in a struggle with a “Arab-Zionist-western axis”. The IRGC’s Quds Force is an extraterritorial unit that operates sophisticated networks to smuggle advanced weapons including ballistic missiles and provide training and resources to these groups.
Crucially, because the IRGC does not recognise sovereign borders, it is ideologically “hardwired” to create, strengthen and spread non-state proxies.
For years, the previous government dragged its feet while ministers argued amongst themselves about whether to ban the IRGC. By contrast, in opposition Labour supported proscription, and pledged in our manifesto to overcome the legal complexities and “take the approach used for dealing with non-state terrorism and adapt it to deal with state-based domestic security threats”.
The announcement by the Foreign Secretary shows the new government’s determination to tackle the Iranian threat. We will be supporting it in the weeks and months ahead in this effort and urge action to institute a ban on the IRGC as swiftly as possible.
- Michael Rubin, director of Labour Friends of Israel
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