UK Government Plans to List Iranian Revolutionary Guard as Terrorist Organization

On January 2nd, it is reported that the British government will declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization in the near future. Once classified as a terrorist organization, an individual is considered to have committed a criminal offence if he or she represents the unit at the relevant meeting or carries the Revolutionary Guard badge in public. According to the U.S. Federal Register on April 15th, 2019, the United States officially declared Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization. In Iran, a nationwide protest sparked in Iran last September after religious police enforced religious laws to correct the unexplained death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who had not worn a headscarf correctly. Subsequently, due to the suppression of the police and the army, many protesters were killed and injured, which became a more serious political and social problem. Last week, seven British citizens were arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard for involvement in anti-government protests. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak specifically called on Iran to stop detaining dual nationals on December 28th of last year. He said Iran should not attempt to use this tactic to gain diplomatic leverage. Britain’s decision to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization should be related to recent changes in the situation in Iran.