Labour peer warns of Iran hazard and London turning into ‘The escape route for the mullahs’ as he urges authorities to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorists
A Labour peer has warned London risks becoming the ‘escape route for Iran‘s mullahs’ as the government falters in rebuking the regime.
Maurice Glasman urged his party to get on with proscribing Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, as our allies have already done, and to bar its leaders from the country.
Speaking on the sidelines of an anti-regime march on the Iranian embassy in London yesterday, Baron Glasman, an ardent supporter of Iran’s deposed monarchy, told the Daily Mail: ‘I expect Labour to proscribe the IRGC soon.
‘I think they’re going to play catch-up in the next couple of weeks. I would like us to be leading the restoration of the monarchy in Iran, but they’re not.’
The IRGC, the feared military wing at the heart of the Islamic Republic, was designated a terror organisation by the US in 2019 and by the EU last month.
This came after the regime killed thousands of demonstrators in a bloody crackdown on widespread protests in January this year.
Mr Glasman said the UK must also ‘put sanctions’ on regime figures, adding: ‘We can’t have London as the escape route for the mullahs.’
Pockets of support for the regime have bubbled up in Britain since joint US and Israeli airstrikes killed the Supreme Leader and sparked an outbreak of violence in the Middle East just over a week ago.
Maurice Glasman, a Labour peer, has urged the UK government to proscribe Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation
Anti-regime demonstrators marching in London on Sunday held up placards in support of Trump’s intervention in Iran
The thousands-strong crowd marched from Whitehall to the Iranian embassy in Kensington
The Islamic Centre of England (ICE) in Maida Vale has proven a focal point for those mourning the Ayatollah, and violent clashes with monarchists have erupted outside it.
Sunday’s march was an upbeat procession of Iran’s Lion and Sun flags – the emblem of the monarchist Pahlavi dynasty, overthrown by the Islamic Republic in 1979 – along with American and Israeli flags and placards.
Some chanted ‘Trump and Bibi, thank you, thank you,’ as they danced in celebration at the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Baron Glasman addressed the thousands-strong crowd, saying: ‘For 47 years, I’ve waited and waited for this moment. This is the final battle.
‘And I demand of my government and my prime minister to immediately close down the embassy of the Islamic Republic.’
Mr Glasman founded the Blue Labour movement, which he said was born of the ‘life-long hate for revolution’ and ‘respect for monarchy’ instilled in him by watching the Islamic Revolution unfold.
He told us: ‘When I was 17-years-old, there was the Iranian revolution. I was a young lefty, and I supported someone called Banisadr.
‘It was the first demo I ever went on – it was against the Shah – and my whole life has been a penance for this action.
The demonstrators called for a return to the monarchy that was overthrown in the 1979 revolution
A sea of Lion and Sun flags, a symbol of support for the deposed Pahlavi dynasty, filled the streets, alongside American and Israeli flags
Several effigies mocked the death of the Ayatollah were displayed. One depicted him as a rat being carried in a coffin
‘So, for 47 years I have been trying to support the resistance to a murdering, hateful, disgusting regime, and now I believe it’s going to go. And I have to be here to express my full support.’
Pressed on why his party had failed to yet proscribe the IRGC, Mr Glasman said: ‘I really find it very hard to understand what’s going on.
‘I understand the reservations about Iraq and post-Iraq. But Iran is not Iraq – these are Persian people. They’re not going to ransack the offices.
‘They want what we have – a constitutional monarchy – and I think we’re obliged to absolutely support them in doing that.’
Footage from the protest as it sat on Whitehall, which several major government departments including the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign Office and the Cabinet Office call home, showed a mass of people chanting: ‘Trump and Bibi: thank you, thank you.’
One speaker said: ‘Trump and Bibi, we are eternally grateful. Thank you, from every Iranian whose dream for these wretched thugs to go away.’
Protesters were also seen dancing to an EDM remix of Trump’s speech in which he announced Khamenei’s assassination, and many emulated the president’s famous dance as music blared through Whitehall.
The war, now into its tenth day, has seen Iran respond aggressively by targeting Western military bases located in its Gulf neighbours’ borders, dragging them into the conflict.
The mass of protesters, which included children, were heard chanting ‘Long live the king’, referencing Pahlavi, in Persian.
Others shouted in Persian: ‘The final battle, Pahlavi will return!’
Despite the calls for the end of the regime, Iran yesterday announced it had chosen Khamanei’s son as his successor.
‘The name of Khamenei will continue,’ said Ayatollah Hosseinali Eshkevari, a member of the clerical council charged with electing a new leader, in a video published in Iranian media.
Trump had said on Sunday that Washington should have a say in the selection. ‘If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long,’ he told ABC News.
Israel said it continued to target senior Iranian figures, including Abolqasem Babaian, the recently appointed head of the military office of the supreme leader, killed in a Saturday strike.
Trump has justified the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq by saying Tehran posed an imminent threat to the United States, without providing evidence.
He has also said Iran was too close to being able to build a nuclear weapon.
The Home Office was approached for comment.
