Government faces fresh calls to outlaw IRGC after proscription of Wagner Group

“So I ask the Government – are you now at long last going to ban support for the Revolutionary Guard? What is stopping you?"

Crossbench peer Lord Alex Carlile told the JC it made sense to ban state affiliated groups that could harm the UK.

“The Wagner group has definitely engaged in terrorism,” he said. “They and the IRGC have intervened in states where they have no business being.”

Kasra Aarabi, an expert on Iran and the IRGC, said: “The UK government’s excuse for not proscribing the IRGC has in part been that the IRGC is an arm of the regime in Iran. 

“The proscription of the Wagner Group, which is an arm of the Russian state, today, means the government can no longer refuse proscribing the IRGC on those grounds.

"The IRGC is a violent Islamist extremist organisation that operates no differently to other proscribed violent Islamist extremist groups: from Al-Qaeda to Hezbollah. In the past 12 months, the IRGC has conducted direct terror plots in the UK.

"It has also sought to nurture homegrown Shia radicalisation and terrorism using the same methods as ISIS and Al-Qaeda. The existing sanctions regime on the IRGC is not sufficient and has many loopholes—and the government knows this."