{"id":346594,"date":"2026-07-14T19:23:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=346594"},"modified":"2026-07-14T19:23:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:23:29","slug":"why-britains-irgc-designation-is-a-crucial-bulwark-against-renewed-appeasement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/terrorism-a-fundamentalism\/why-britains-irgc-designation-is-a-crucial-bulwark-against-renewed-appeasement\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Britain\u2019s IRGC Designation is a Crucial Bulwark Against Renewed Appeasement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"On
On December 15, 2021, in Washington, DC, Alireza Jafarzadeh of the NCRI-US office speaks at a press briefing on countering the Iranian threat during the launch of the NCRI report \u201cIRGC\u2019s Rising Drone Threat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the clerical regime orchestrates its drawn-out burial processions for Ali Khamenei\u2014parading coffins through five cities in a desperate bid to manufacture the illusion of popular loyalty\u2014a dangerous temptation is quietly resurfacing in some capitals. Observing a regime navigating a highly vulnerable transition, some policymakers are not seeing an opportunity to apply maximum pressure, but rather a pretext for a renewed trial of appeasement. They are eager to interpret the regime’s choreographed theatrics and the unseen succession of Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, as signs of a state that is simply “here to stay.”<\/p>\n

It is exactly against this persistent and damaging misperception that the British government\u2019s July 13 designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a national security threat finds its true significance. Under the newly fast-tracked National Security (State Threats) Act 2026, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood criminalized support for the IRGC, introducing penalties of up to 14 years in prison and potential life sentences for acts of sabotage.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s legal pivot disrupts the appeasement narrative. But this legislative milestone was not generated spontaneously within Whitehall; it was the final output of a highly organized, transnational intelligence and diplomatic campaign.<\/p>\n

At the political center of this sustained campaign was Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, who for years made the designation of the IRGC a central demand of the Iranian Resistance\u2019s international activities. In hundreds of speeches, statements, parliamentary meetings, international conferences and press conferences, Mrs. Rajavi repeatedly<\/a> called on Western governments\u2014particularly European governments\u2014to blacklist the IRGC, dismantle its networks and front organizations, expel its agents and hold its commanders accountable for terrorism and crimes against the Iranian people.<\/p>\n

Her campaign consistently presented the IRGC not as an ordinary military institution, but as the principal pillar of the clerical regime\u2019s survival: the force responsible for domestic repression, the export of terrorism, regional warfare, hostage-taking and the regime\u2019s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The Resistance\u2019s intelligence disclosures, publications and parliamentary initiatives provided the evidentiary foundation for this long-running political strategy.<\/p>\n

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.@Maryam_Rajavi<\/a>: Since several years ago, the #Iran<\/a>-ian Resistance had urged the terrorist designation of the #IRGC<\/a> #HR3364<\/a> #BlackListIRGC<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/1SxLKosbMp<\/a><\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) July 28, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n