UK: Government Designates Iran's IRGC as a Terrorist Organization
Is designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization a reckless provocation or long-overdue accountability?
Above: Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps in Tehran, Iran in September 2018. Image credit: STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images
The Spin
Pro-Iran narrative
This is a reckless move driven by U.S. and Israeli pressure. The IRGC has fought Daesh and other terrorist groups that Western powers helped create, making this designation a dangerous inversion of reality. British policymakers will bear direct responsibility for the consequences of this hostile and legally baseless provocation.
Anti-Iran narrative
This move is long overdue and grounded in undeniable reality. The IRGC has spent decades sponsoring terrorism, destabilizing the Middle East and funding extremist proxies that threaten civilian populations worldwide. Holding this regime accountable through formal designation is the kind of decisive action that responsible governments must take.
