UJS calls for proscription of IRGC following explosive BBC report
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UJS calls for proscription of IRGC following explosive BBC report

'The new details that have emerged about IRGC lectures to British students are yet another stark warning of the Iranian regime's global threat,' the Union of Jewish Students said.

2M4R51J Tehran, Tehran, Iran. 20th Dec, 2022. commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Major General HOSSEIN SALAMI (2L) and Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) Quds Force, ESMAIL QAANI (2R) attend in a ceremony for commemorating death anniversary of an IRGC's Quds force commander in Tehran, December 20, 2022. (Credit Image: © Rouzbeh Fouladi via ZUMA Press Wire)
2M4R51J Tehran, Tehran, Iran. 20th Dec, 2022. commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Major General HOSSEIN SALAMI (2L) and Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) Quds Force, ESMAIL QAANI (2R) attend in a ceremony for commemorating death anniversary of an IRGC's Quds force commander in Tehran, December 20, 2022. (Credit Image: © Rouzbeh Fouladi via ZUMA Press Wire)

The Union of Jewish Students has urged onthe government to proscribe the IRGC as a terror group after a BBC report revealed the Charity Commission is investigating antisemitic speeches by Iranian generals given to UK students. 

The BBC said it verified two of the videos which include Holocaust denial as well as member of the IRGC describing an apocalyptic war on Jews.

The videos were recorded between 2020 and 2021 at three events, two of which were live-streamed speeches by “former and active IRGC commanders.”

Another event was in-person at the Kanoon Towhid Islamic centre in west London, where former IRGC leader Qasem Soleimani was commemorated following the US assassination of him in 2020. BBC said that chants of “death to Israel” were heard at the event.

The events, BBC said, were promoted by Islamic Students Associations of Britain (ISA) and its affiliates, “which use the Kanoon Towhid centre as a meeting place. Unlike the UK’s main Muslim student groups, the ISA was founded to promote the philosophy of the leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini.”

Following the BBC exposure, Union of Jewish Students issued a statement saying: “The new details that have emerged about IRGC lectures to British students are yet another stark warning of the Iranian regime’s global threat. The call for the radicalisation of British students to become ‘soft-war officers’ endangers the very fabric of our student community and threatens the welfare and security of Jewish students.”

“The proscription of the IRGC is now more crucial than ever. We will be seeking urgent security assurances from the Government,” the union added.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has also urged the UK and the international community to proscribe the IRGC as a terror organisation, telling The Telegraph: “That’s what they are. Terrorists.”

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