The Green party is considering lifting economic sanctions on Iran and improving diplomatic relations with its fundamentalist Islamic regime, The Spectator can reveal. A motion submitted to the party’s autumn conference also calls for ‘peace building’ with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and support for ‘UN-led regional security and arms-control initiatives that include Iran as a full participant’. If passed, the motion will become official party policy.
The foreign policy proposals on Iran are backed by numerous members of the influential Greens for Palestine group. Leaked messages from the organisation’s WhatsApp chat show participants hailing the IRGC as a ‘national liberation movement’ that helped unshackle the country from a ‘US puppet regime’. Discussing Iran, one member of the chat, named Priscilla, argued that the IRGC is an ‘effective resistance’ movement and that ‘all the evidence points to events like the (Golders Green) ambulance attacks being a false flag Israeli intelligence operation with the co-operation of the British state, the media and Zionist organisations’.
The Green push to lift sanctions on Iran and improve relations with the IRGC comes after the Islamic Republic killed tens of thousands of civilians protesting against the regime at the beginning of the year. It also follows warnings from Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley that the ‘rapid growth in recent years of Iranian state threats is grave’ and ‘Britain’s Jewish community has in recent years been increasingly targeted by individuals, groups and hostile states, intent on spreading fear, hate and harm’.
Commenting on the proposal, Labour MP David Taylor told The Spectator: ‘This is terrifyingly naive. The IRGC is not a peace group, it is the Iranian regime’s blood-soaked enforcer. They often crush protesters, jail dissidents, back terror proxies and plot threats on British soil.’ He added: ‘For the Greens to even consider opposing action against it, while questioning Britain’s terror laws from first principles, is reckless, dangerous and utterly out of touch. Voters deserve to know why a party seeking power is flirting with ideas that would make Britain less safe.’
Kasra Aarabi, Director of IRGC Research at United Against Nuclear Iran, said: ‘Make no mistake: this is not an isolated incident. The new Green Party leadership and some of its members have repeatedly demonstrated a serious lack of judgment in matters of national security. The IRGC is the world’s most heavily armed antisemitic Islamist extremist organisation and it has British blood on its hands. Islamist extremists are the only ones who stand to gain from efforts to oppose the IRGC’s proscription and weaken Britain’s counter-terrorism framework.’
Alongside seeking closer relations with the IRGC, Green party members are also considering banning male circumcision in children, declaring that ‘Zionism is racism’ and granting ‘workers who menstruate’ an additional 36 days of paid leave each year. The party faces its next big electoral test in the Manchester mayoral race, where it hopes to continue hoovering up Labour votes despite the departure of Sir Keir Starmer as leader and prime minister.
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