Farage urges Starmer to proscribe Iran’s IRGC after foiled assassination plot
Nigel Farage has urged the Prime Minister to proscribe Iran’s IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) to make inroads with Donald Trump in light of a thwarted assassination attempt against him.
The Reform UK leader said Sir Keir Starmer should designate the IRGC as a terrorist group as part of a push to “roll out the red carpet” for the President-elect.
Speaking to crowds at his party’s South West conference in Exeter on Saturday, Farage said it was “absolutely extraordinary” that the elite militia group had not yet been proscribed in the UK.
If it was, the IRGC would join Isis, Hezbollah, Hamas and many more in Britain’s terror black-list.
Farage continued: “The whole thing is really unbelievable… How have the Conservatives in government got this so wrong over Iran at every level?
“The [2015] Iran deal freed up tens of billions of dollars and they ignored the nuclear constraints in every way.”
The deal had aimed to limit Iran’s nuclear programme – but the US withdrew under Trump in 2018.
He said: “I’ve been screaming about it from day one and they [Iran] have used this money to better arm the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, and we still won’t proscribe the IRGC.
“I find the whole thing absolutely extraordinary… and now we learn of the plot [to kill Trump].
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“If we’re going to roll out the red carpet for Donald Trump, actually, right now, proscribing the IRGC on the back of this news would be a very good thing to do.”
Farage was referencing the news that the US government had charged Afghan national – and “Iranian asset” – Farhad Shakeri with “providing a plan” to kill Trump.
American Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed the US Justice Department had “charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump.”
Shakeri told US law enforcement that the Iranian government told him it would be easier to try to assassinate Trump after the election – because they believed he would lose, prosecutors said.
But Shakeri has not been arrested – and is believed to be in Iran, whose leadership called the charges “completely baseless”.
But back in Britain, the pressure from the Reform UK leader has echoed that on Starmer from within Labour to proscribe the IRGC.
Pro-Israel Labour MPs have told the Government that proscription of the group holds top priority on a “menu of options”, The Telegraph revealed.