MP calls on UK to proscribe Iran guards to end ‘nefarious activities’

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The National Council of Resistance of Iran’s UK office held a press conference at the House of Commons in London on Feb. 2, 2023. (AN Photo)
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Updated 04 February 2023
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MP calls on UK to proscribe Iran guards to end ‘nefarious activities’

  • Bob Blackman called for imposing stronger sanctions to ‘bring this regime to its knees’ as they do not respond to negotiations
  • National Council of Resistance of Iran called for the Islamic Center of England to be closed as it spreads the regime’s propaganda across the UK

LONDON: Iran poses a “clear and present danger” and immediate action must be taken to proscribe the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization in the UK, according to a parliamentarian.

“Every day we delay, we give them the opportunity to expand their operations, to carry out other nefarious activities,” Bob Blackman, MP for Harrow East, told Arab News. “We’ve seen evidence of some of the organizations in the United Kingdom that are operating under direct control of the IRGC.”

He said that this was “a serious threat to our homeland security, so it’s key that we have to address it and prompt action is required.”

Blackman said that the British government has already proscribed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip as terrorist organizations and they “are funded and supported by the IRGC.” The things the regime has done and is doing have been listed, and these are sufficient for it to be proscribed.

The US has done it, other European countries are working on it and “we need to encourage our allies to work jointly with us so they cannot operate anywhere else in the world, but that’s the key challenge,” he added.

Although it has received cross-party support as a matter of national interest and security, the UK has failed to proscribe them so far, and “the only reason why the government, I think, are hesitating over that is that ends negotiations, and if it ends negotiations, well, fine. I don’t mind that,” Blackman said.




Locations of Iranian regime missile sites across the country. (Supplied/NCRI)

Talks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which was scrapped by then-president, Donald Trump, in 2018, have been deadlocked since September.

“There are no negotiations going on because obviously the IRGC activities and the activities of the regime in Iran is suppressing their people with a position whereby thousands have been arrested, hundreds have been killed, and many face potential execution for the mere crime of protesting against the regime. There’s no time to negotiate on that basis,” he said.

Blackman believes negotiations are a mistake in the first place as there has been evidence that Iran was in violation of its obligations under the current treaty, and talks cannot be held under those circumstances.




(Supplied/NCRI)

“What we do have to do is prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon at all costs. That of course, does mean at all costs. We cannot get them to a point where they’ve got a nuclear weapon and can threaten the region with potential nuclear war. That would just be a complete disaster for everyone in the region and possibly beyond.”

He called for imposing stronger sanctions against individuals to “bring this regime to its knees” because it did not respond to negotiations.

Blackman said that the UK government’s rationale must also be that there are dual nationals and British citizens in Iran, and urged them to leave because they could be captured and used as hostages, which has happened already.

“We’re seeing all sorts of nefarious activities, interference in elections in other countries, terrorist plots which have been foiled not only across the Middle East but also in Europe and in the UK itself, as well as now cyberattacks which are proven to be going on, attacking the House of Commons and the Houses of Parliament generally, for the sole purpose, obviously, of disrupting our data and causing us damage overall.

“That just demonstrates that these people are not to be trusted one iota and therefore need to be proscribed,” he said.

Blackman was speaking on the sidelines of a press conference organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran’s UK office on Thursday to reveal new information about the terrorist activities of the IRGC and the need to proscribe them. He said they have held numerous negotiations with the UK Foreign Office and will now speak with the Home Office, as it was up to them to make the decision.

Hossein Abedini, deputy director of the NCRI’s UK representative office, said they are in touch with many MPs in different parties and there is a strong British committee supporting Iranian freedom in parliament, which has been very active in different debates.

He highlighted to reporters the ways in which the IRGC was an army of terror and oppression, and suppressing the Iranian people, along with their training and military bases and major garrisons around the country and in the capital, Tehran




(Supplied/NCRI)

Abedini shared a classified document in Farsi obtained by the NCRI of minutes of a meeting at the International Directorate of the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on May 31, 2022, where representatives of eight terrorist and extremist organizations of the regime participated.

Among the minutes, one representative from the Quds Force — one of five branches of the IRGC — reported bringing a 55-member military delegation from Venezuela to Iran in 2022, “which shows the dimensions of the IRGC’s intervention in a Latin American country,” an English explanation of the document provided by the NCRI said.

Abedini called for the London-based Islamic Center of England, which is under the supervision of the International Directorate Khamenei’s Office and headed by Mullah Seyed Hashem Mousavi, to be closed down as it had agents around the UK that aimed to spread the regime’s propaganda.




Appointment of Seyed Hashem Moussavi as the head of the Islamic Center of England in London by the international director of Khamenei’s Office Mohsen Qomi. (Supplied/NCRI)

On the recent execution of Alireza Akbari, an Iranian-British national who was a former Iranian deputy defense minister, Abedini said that this could add weight to the UK’s decision to proscribe the IRGC.

“That clearly shows that the regime is panicking, and it clearly shows that they are really in a very critical situation. I think it certainly will add, but it’s a political decision, so the UK, if the members of Parliament continue to put pressure, we will reach that point,” he added.

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After Trump halted funding for Afghans who helped the US, this group stepped in to help

Updated 16 sec ago
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After Trump halted funding for Afghans who helped the US, this group stepped in to help

  • No One Left Behind helps Afghans and Iraqis who qualify for the special immigrant visa program, which was set up by Congress in 2009 to help people who are in danger because of their efforts to aid the US during the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars

WASHINGTON: When Andrew Sullivan thinks of the people his organization has helped resettle in America, one particular story comes to mind: an Afghan man in a wheelchair who was shot through the neck by a member of the Taliban for helping the US during its war in Afghanistan.
“I just think ... Could I live with myself if we send that guy back to Afghanistan?” said Sullivan, executive director of No One Left Behind. “And I thankfully don’t have to because he made it to northern Virginia.”
The charitable organization of US military veterans, Afghans who once fled their country and volunteers in the US is stepping in to help Afghans like that man in the wheelchair who are at risk of being stranded overseas. Their efforts come after the Trump administration took steps to hinder Afghans who helped America’s war effort in trying to resettle in the US
No One Left Behind helps Afghans and Iraqis who qualify for the special immigrant visa program, which was set up by Congress in 2009 to help people who are in danger because of their efforts to aid the US during the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars.
President Donald Trump in January suspended programs that buy flights for those refugees and cut off aid to the groups that help them resettle in the US Hundreds who were approved for travel to the US had visas but few ways to get here. If they managed to buy a flight, they had little help when they arrived.
The White House and State Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, the situation for Afghans has become more tenuous in some of the places where many have temporarily settled. Pakistan, having hosted millions of refugees, has in recent years removed Afghans from its country. increased deportations. An agreement that made Albania a waystation for Afghans expires in March, Sullivan said.
Hovering over all of this is the fear that the Trump administration may announce a travel ban that could cut off all access from Afghanistan. In an executive order signed on Inauguration Day, Trump told key Cabinet members to submit a report within 60 days that identifies countries with vetting so poor that it would “warrant a partial or full suspension” of travelers from those countries to the US.
US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Monday that the review was ongoing and no list had been finalized.
But groups that work with Afghans are worried.
When funding was suspended, No One Left Behind stepped in. Their goal is to make sure Afghans with State Department visas don’t get stuck overseas. Other organizations — many who got their start helping Afghans during the US military’s chaotic withdrawal from Kabul in 2021 — are doing the same.
To qualify for this visa, Afghans must prove they worked for the US for at least one year. That means tracking down documentation from former supervisors, who were often affiliated with companies no longer in business. They also undergo extensive vetting and medical checks.
“Our view was, OK, we’ve got to act immediately to try and help these people,” said Sullivan. “We’ve been in kind of an all-out sprint.”
The organization has raised money to buy flights and help Afghans when they land. Between February 1 and March 17, the group said it successfully booked flights for 659 Afghans.
It also launched a website where visa holders can share information, giving Sullivan’s group a starting point to figure out where they might live in the US.
Sullivan and the organization’s “ambassadors” — Afghans and Iraqis who already have emigrated to the US, many through the special immigrant visa program — have gone to Albania and Qatar to help stranded Afghans.
Aqila is one of those ambassadors who went to Albania. The Associated Press is identifying Aqila by her first name because her family in Afghanistan is still at risk.
Aqila said many of the families didn’t know what would happen when they arrived in America. Would they be homeless? Abandoned? One man feared he’d end up alone in the airport parking lot because his contact in America — a long-haul trucker — couldn’t come pick him up. She assured him that someone would be there.
They gave them cards with contact information for attorneys. They printed papers with information about their rights in English, Dari, and Pashto.
No One Left Behind reached out to family members and friends in the US to help with the transition when they landed in America.
Mohammad Saboor, a father of seven children, worked as an electrician and A/C technician with international and US forces for 17 years. Two months ago, he and his family boarded a plane to Albania in anticipation of soon being able to go to America. They landed in California on March 12, exhausted but safe
The next day he and his family explored their new apartment in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova.
Saboor said he hasn’t felt safe in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the country in August 2021. He worried that he’d be killed as retribution for the nearly two decades he’d worked with the US and its allies. He wondered what kind of future his children would have in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
The family picked the suburb in the hope that the large Afghan population in the Sacramento area would help them get settled and find work. He envisions a bright future in America, where his kids can go to school and eventually give back to the country that took his family in. Arriving in the US, he said, gave them a “great feeling.”
“I believe that now we can live in a 100 percent peaceful environment,” he said.
Sullivan said he hopes there will be exceptions for Afghans in the special immigrant visa program if a travel ban is imposed. They’ve been thoroughly vetted, he said, and earned the right to be here.
“These are folks that actually served shoulder-to-shoulder with American troops and diplomats for 20 years,” he said.
Aqila, the Afghan ambassador, said it’s stressful to hear stories of what people went through in Afghanistan. But the reward comes when she sees photos of those who have arrived in America.
“You can see the hope in their eyes,” she said. “It’s nice to be human. It’s nice be kind to each other.”


EU sanctions Rwandan officials ahead of Congo peace talks

Updated 25 min 5 sec ago
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EU sanctions Rwandan officials ahead of Congo peace talks

KIGALI: The EU sanctioned nine people and a gold refinery on Monday in connection with a Rwanda-backed rebellion in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a day before peace talks scheduled in Angola between M23 rebels and the Congolese government.

The sanctions targeted M23 political leader Bertrand Bisimwa and Rwandan army commanders. 

They were also applied to the CEO of Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board, and Gasabo Gold Refinery in Kigali, which the EU accused of illicitly exporting natural resources from Congo.

Amid a flurry of diplomatic activity, a rebel alliance that includes M23 confirmed it would send a five-member delegation to Tuesday’s talks in Luanda, which could mark M23’s first direct negotiations with the Congolese government.

Congo President Felix Tshisekedi’s office said on Sunday that Kinshasa would send representatives to Luanda, reversing the government’s long-standing vow not to negotiate with the group, which it has dismissed as a mere front for the Rwandan government.

Pressure has been growing on Tshisekedi to negotiate with M23 after a series of battlefield setbacks since January. 

The rebels have seized eastern Congo’s two biggest cities and several smaller localities.

The fighting has killed at least 7,000 people this year, according to the Congolese government, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.

The conflict is rooted in the spillover into Congo of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and the struggle for control of Congo’s vast mineral resources, many of which are used in batteries used for electric vehicles and other electronic products.

The UN and international powers accuse Rwanda of providing arms and sending soldiers to fight with the ethnic Tutsi-led M23. 

Rwanda says its forces are acting in self-defense against Congo’s army and militias that are hostile to Kigali.

A Rwandan government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the EU sanctions.

Western countries have taken measures against Rwanda over the conflict, including the withholding of development aid by Britain and Germany, but Kigali has been defiant.

On Monday, it announced it was severing diplomatic relations with Belgium, the former colonial power in Rwanda and Congo, and giving Belgian diplomats 48 hours to leave.

Rwanda’s Foreign Ministry accused Belgium, which has called for strong EU action against Kigali, of “using lies and manipulation to secure an unjustified hostile opinion of Rwanda.”

Belgium’s Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Prevot said Brussels would reciprocate by declaring Rwandan diplomats persona non grata, calling Kigali’s move “disproportionate.”

Previous rounds of EU sanctions have targeted M23 commanders and Rwandan army officers.

Zobel Behalal, a senior expert at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, said the latest sanctions were notable in going after Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board, and the Gasabo Gold Refinery.

“The EU sanctions ... are a recognition that profits from natural resources are one of the main motivations for Rwanda’s involvement in this conflict,” said Behalal.

The mines board and the gold refinery did not immediately respond to requests for comment.


UN experts slam US arrests of pro-Palestinian students

Updated 6 min 15 sec ago
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UN experts slam US arrests of pro-Palestinian students

  • “These actions are disproportionate, unnecessary, and discriminatory and will only lead to more trauma and polarization negatively impacting the learning environment within university campuses,” the UN experts said in a statement
  • The Trump administration cut $400 million in federal funding for Columbia University, accusing it of not sufficiently addressing anti-Semitism

GENEVA: UN-appointed experts on Monday branded US authorities’ arrests of foreign students for pro-Palestinian protests on campus “disproportionate” and called for their rights to be respected.
US campuses including Columbia University in New York were rocked by student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas, drawing accusations of anti-Semitism.
Immigration officers arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of protests at Columbia, on the weekend of March 9-10 after US President Donald Trump vowed to deport foreign pro-Palestinian student demonstrators.
The White House later said authorities had supplied a list of other Columbia students that officers were seeking to deport over their alleged participation in protests.
“These actions are disproportionate, unnecessary, and discriminatory and will only lead to more trauma and polarization negatively impacting the learning environment within university campuses,” the UN experts said in a statement.
“These actions create a chilling effect on the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and of association,” they added.
The Trump administration has moved to revoke Khalil’s residency permit, accusing him of leading “activities aligned with Hamas.”
Khalil’s lawyer later told a court that he had been taken to Louisiana and denied legal advice.
The independent experts, appointed by the UN to report on rights issues, urged US authorities “to cease repression and retaliation, including in the form of arbitrary detention of US lawful permanent residents, and removal of international students who have participated in university protests.”
The Trump administration cut $400 million in federal funding for Columbia University, accusing it of not sufficiently addressing anti-Semitism.
Columbia administrators later said they had suspended and expelled a number of students who had occupied a campus building last year.
 

 


Kenya urged to investigate mutilated bodies dumped in quarry

Updated 28 min 45 sec ago
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Kenya urged to investigate mutilated bodies dumped in quarry

NAIROBI: Human Rights Watch has urged Kenya to conclude an investigation into mutilated bodies found in a quarry last year and address claims that police blocked recovery efforts.

There was shock and disgust last July in the East African country when 10 butchered female corpses and other unidentified body parts were recovered, mostly by volunteers, from an abandoned quarry in the Mukuru slum in the capital, Nairobi.

The discovery came as Kenya was gripped by deadly government protests, with rights groups alleging police brutality and the abduction of prominent protesters.

Authorities promised swift action and quickly arrested a man who they said had confessed to murdering and dismembering 42 women.

But around a month later, the suspect escaped police custody and disappeared without a trace.

“No prosecution has been initiated either for the bodies or this escape,” HRW and the Mukuru Community Center for Social Justice said in a joint statement.

HRW said volunteers at the quarry alleged that police officers had forced them to stop retrieving body parts.


Doctor deported to Lebanon had photos ‘sympathetic’ to Hezbollah on phone, US says

Updated 38 min 36 sec ago
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Doctor deported to Lebanon had photos ‘sympathetic’ to Hezbollah on phone, US says

BOSTON: US authorities on Monday said they deported a Rhode Island doctor to Lebanon last week after discovering “sympathetic photos and videos” of the former longtime leader of Hezbollah and militants in her cell phone’s deleted items folder.

Alawieh had also told agents that while in Lebanon, she attended the funeral last month of Hezbollah’s slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, whom she supported from a “religious perspective.”

The US Department of Justice provided those details as it sought to assure a federal judge in Boston that US Customs and Border Protection did not willfully disobey an order he issued on Friday that should have halted Dr. Rasha Alawieh’s immediate removal.

The 34-year-old Lebanese citizen, who held an H-1B visa, was detained on Thursday at Logan International Airport in Boston after returning from a trip to Lebanon to see family. 

Her cousin then filed a lawsuit seeking to halt her deportation.

In its first public explanation for her removal, the Justice Department said Alawieh, a kidney specialist and assistant professor at Brown University, was denied re-entry to the US based on what CBP found on her phone and statements she made during an airport interview.

“It’s a purely religious thing,” she said about the funeral, according to a transcript of that interview reviewed by Reuters. 

“He’s a very big figure in our community. For me it’s not political.”

Western governments including the US designate Hezbollah a terrorist group.