The Iranian regime brutally suppresses its own people and represents a clear and present danger to security and prosperity in the Middle East.
Through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Tehran funds, arms, trains and directs a network of proxy armies – including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthis and Iraqi Shia militia – which are committed to the destruction of Israel and the liberal democratic values it upholds. Tehran commands the biggest ballistic arsenal in the Middle East – with a range that can reach NATO and EU territory – and its nuclear programme is on the threshold of producing a nuclear weapon.
The Iranian regime’s pernicious activities present a growing threat to the UK’s interests and allies in the region and beyond. Its proxy armies allow Iran to exercise neocolonial power in Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. Its support for the Houthis endangers freedom of shipping and international trade. And its alliance with Russia and China is aiding Putin’s war against Ukraine, providing the Kremlin’s war machine with drones and missiles to terrorise Ukrainian civilians.
But, since their signing in 2020, the Abraham Accords have shown there’s an alternative: one which holds out the prospect of greater trade and prosperity; regional cooperation in the face of shared challenges like climate change; and new bonds of understanding and partnership between Arabs and Jews.
We want to support Britain’s new Labour government to:
- Proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and sanction the regime leadership through Magnitsky sanctions, targeting human rights abusers who supress women, minorities and demonstrators.
- Establish a Special Envoy to help support and expand the Abraham Accords.
- Begin reversing cuts to the international aid budget, the diplomatic service and the British Council.
- Support the Middle East’s economic growth agenda and work to build support for liberal democratic values.
- Support the growth and strengthening of independent trade unions in the region, which not only bolster workers’ rights but are crucial civic society institutions crossing sectarian and religious divides.