Activists Push, But Europe Hesitates To Call Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Terrorists

In late February, British-Iranian human rights activist Vahid Beheshti set up camp opposite the entrance to the Foreign Office in central London and began a hunger strike. He had one main demand: that the UK government designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp as a terrorist group.

More than a month later, he is still there, having lost around 11 kilos. “Sometimes I get cold. Sometimes I get weak and sometimes I think I have energy. Then the next hour it drains out again,” he said on March 24, on the 30th day of his hunger strike. “Physically [I’m] getting weaker but internally [I’m] getting stronger and I’m determined to continue until we achieve this great goal.”

His aim is a policy that, until recently, seemed to be high up the agenda of the London government.

At the start of the year, the UK seemed to be on the verge of proscribing the IRGC. Government minister Leo Docherty told the House of Commons on January 12 the issue was being actively considered, although he declined to say when a decision might be made.

That now seems a more distant prospect. Foreign secretary James Cleverly said in a debate in the House of Commons earlier this month that the IRGC was under UK sanctions, but declined to answer a question on any designation. “We do not routinely discuss future designations and sanctions, but we will always take actions that protect the British people and British interests and that deter malign activity,” he said.

Activists fear that the idea is receding due to official concern over the likely response from Iran to any designation. In particular, some in government appear worried that efforts to secure the release of other British citizens in Iranian prisons will become harder.

Beheshti argues that would be a mistake. “Hostage taking is the main policy of the IRGC. As long as we carry on with our appeasement policy they will continue with their hostage-taking policies. They are manipulating us. They took the entire world for the past 44 years for fools and they’re laughing at us. They only understand one language and that is pressure,” he said.

European hesitation

There has been a similar trend at play elsewhere in Europe. In January, the European Parliament voted in favour of designating the IRGC as a terrorist group. The parliament does not have the power to enact such a decision, but it was nonetheless a signal which drew vehement protest from Tehran.

The European Union’s political leaders have yet to follow through on that vote. Soon after parliament had its say, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell argued that a court first needed to make a ruling on the matter. Since then, the idea appears to have slipped down the agenda, although there is still some pressure to take action – Lithuania’s foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis recently said there was a “growing consensus” among EU member states that the IRGC should be designated.

Beheshti’s protest is an effort to shift official thinking. His camp in central London is bedecked with flags bearing the ‘women, life, freedom’ slogan of the protest movement that has swept Iran over the past six months – since the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Those banners sit alongside flags with the Lion and Sun motif of pre-revolutionary Iran and the Derafsh Kaviani flag of the pre-Muslim Sasanian Empire.

Despite being in the heart of the government district, Beheshti said that, even there, he did not feel entirely safe from the threat of the Iranian state. “Today we see the hands of the IRGC in London. The IRGC is here. We don’t feel safe. Here [outside the Foreign Office] is the safest place in the UK but I don’t feel safe even here,” he said.

His comments are informed by, among other things, the fact that Iran International TV recently shuttered its London office and moved all its broadcasting to Washington D.C. because of the threat against its journalists from the IRGC – a threat acknowledged by British security services. IRGC commander-in-chief Major General Hossein Salami has said the closure of the TV station was a sign of “how far the Islamic Revolution’s realm of power, field of infiltration and radius of influence has extended.”

Beheshti has had visits from parliamentarians such as Lord Polak and celebrities such as comedian and actor Omid Djalili. However, the UK government has not responded to his requests to meet and discuss the IRGC’s designation. At the time of writing it was unclear how much longer he could sustain his protest, but he said “As long as I can I will be here.”