Statement by the International Committee in Search of Justice (ISJ)
ISJ Welcomes UK’s Proscription of the IRGC, Lauds Mrs Maryam Rajavi’s Three-Decade Campaign, and Calls for Decisive Action Against the Regime’s Terror Network
The International Committee in Search of Justice (ISJ) welcomes the United Kingdom’s decision to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation. This long-overdue decision represents an important victory for justice, security, and the rule of law, and acknowledges what the Iranian people and the international community have long known: the IRGC is not a conventional military force but the principal instrument of the Iranian regime’s terrorism, repression, hostage-taking, and regional aggression.
ISJ extends its profound appreciation to Mrs Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and to the NCRI for their tireless efforts over more than three decades to expose the IRGC’s true nature and advocate for its designation as a terrorist organisation. Long before the international community fully recognised the scale of the threat, Mrs Rajavi consistently warned, in speeches, international conferences, parliamentary forums, and meetings with policymakers across Europe and North America, that the IRGC was the principal instrument of the Iranian regime’s terrorism, repression, regional aggression, and export of extremism. She repeatedly stressed that no effective policy towards Tehran could succeed while its most powerful military, political, and economic arm remained untouched.
Through the NCRI’s intelligence disclosures, meticulous documentation, and sustained international advocacy, Mrs Rajavi and the Iranian Resistance exposed the IRGC’s terrorist operations, vast financial empire, and extensive network of front companies and agents operating across Europe and beyond. They also documented its central role in crushing peaceful protests, carrying out arbitrary arrests, torture, and executions inside Iran, while directing proxy militias, assassination plots, hostage-taking, cyber warfare, and destabilising activities abroad. These efforts have been instrumental in informing parliamentarians, governments, and security agencies about the IRGC’s multifaceted threat to both the Iranian people and international security. The United Kingdom’s decision today is, in no small measure, a testament to the persistence, credibility, and impact of that decades-long campaign.
This important achievement is also the result of years of determined efforts by principled members of both Houses of the British Parliament, who consistently refused to allow political expediency to overshadow the threat posed by the IRGC. ISJ pays particular tribute to the British Committee for Iran Freedom (BCFIF) and its distinguished members for their unwavering leadership in advocating this policy through parliamentary initiatives, conferences, public campaigns, and sustained engagement with successive governments.
We wish to express our special appreciation to Bob Blackman MP, whose steadfast commitment, moral clarity, and tireless leadership have made him one of the foremost champions of the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom and a leading advocate for holding the IRGC accountable for its crimes. His persistence over many years has played a significant role in bringing about today’s decision.
While today’s decision is historic, it must not be regarded as the conclusion of the United Kingdom’s policy toward the IRGC. Proscription must now be accompanied by decisive enforcement measures. The British government should immediately identify, investigate, and dismantle all companies, charities, cultural organisations, and commercial entities that serve as fronts for the IRGC or facilitate its financial activities. Equally important, individuals acting on behalf of the IRGC or the Iranian regime under diplomatic, commercial, religious, academic, or cultural cover should be expelled from the United Kingdom and prevented from using British soil to intimidate dissidents, recruit operatives, spread extremism, or finance terrorism.
ISJ reiterates that lasting peace and stability will not be achieved solely by sanctioning the regime’s instruments of repression. The international community must also stand unequivocally with the Iranian people and recognise their right, and the right of their organised democratic Resistance, to confront the IRGC and end the religious dictatorship. The democratic alternative presented by the National Council of Resistance of Iran offers a clear path toward a secular, democratic republic based on universal suffrage, the rule of law, gender equality, separation of religion and state, and peaceful coexistence.
Today’s decision by the United Kingdom is an important milestone. It should now serve as the foundation for a broader international effort to dismantle the IRGC’s global terrorist network and to support the Iranian people’s legitimate aspiration for freedom, democracy, and justice.
