The British Parliament proposes to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group

The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has presented its report 'No prosperity without justice: the UK-Iran relationship'. The report, which was produced earlier this year, sets out a number of measures that the British Government should take in its future relationship with the Ayatollahs' regime.

The proposal for this new relationship is due to the impact that Iran's actions are having and its interference in situations and conflicts that affect third countries in the region, such as Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and the Palestinian territory.

Possibly the proposal that carries the most weight in the report is the designation of the whole of Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group. According to the report drawn up by the Foreign Affairs Committee, the IRGC's actions in support of terrorist groups and armed militias, through training, logistic support or financing, are covered by the British Terrorism Act 2000, which could be used to implement this designation.

The president of the Commission, the Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, considers this step to be "natural" given the IRGC's links to violence and terrorism in the Middle East region. Also, as stated in the report, the inclusion of the IRGC on this list of terrorist groups would continue the restrictions and sanctions already imposed by the European Union on some of its members, and the designation as a foreign terrorist organisation by the United States last year.

However, this proposal concerning the IRGC is not the only one contained in the Commission's report. Another of the proposals is to seek a new agreement to replace the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA) signed in 2015 between several nuclear powers and Iran, with the mediation of the European Union, to control and reduce Iran's nuclear programme and, in particular, its reserves of enriched uranium and gas centrifuges.

The report aims to build a new agreement in which the United Kingdom, now outside the EU, will play a key role in achieving it. The JCPOA has had a number of ups and downs, partly due to the US withdrawal from the agreement under the Trump Administration, and the implementation of further sanctions against Iran. Furthermore, following the death of Qassem Soleimani in a US attack in Baghdad, Iran announced that it would continue with its nuclear programme. Furthermore, following the death also of the scientist Mohsen Fajrizadeh, Iran reaffirmed this decision.

Tom Tugendhat has commented that the "good intentions that led to the agreement in 2015" do not hide the fact that the agreement was built on a very weak base that must now be strengthened. In this sense, the 'Tory' parliamentarian points out that the arrival of Joe Biden can facilitate this new agreement that replaces the JCPOA.

Finally, the report focuses on aspects related to the civilian population, the protection of the Iranian people and the violation of rights carried out by Tehran. In particular, there is one issue that the report points to and that is the detention of citizens with dual British-Iranian nationality, which must be considered as a hostage taking by Iran. In this respect, the report proposes an improvement in consular efforts to protect these people and their families from the excesses of the Iranian authorities.

Everything presented in this report by the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee must now be studied by the British government headed by Boris Johnson and, if necessary, approved.