Mick Hartley

Camilla Turner in the Telegraph – Iranian network linked to Revolutionary Guard openly operating in the UK:

A “propaganda network” linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is openly operating in Britain, The Telegraph can disclose.

The Tehran-backed operation risks “compromising national security” and must be shut down, ministers have been told.

The Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU) is a membership group for media entities whose messaging is aligned with the Iranian regime and its regional proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, the Yemeni militant group.

In 2020, it was sanctioned by the US, which said it was “owned or controlled” by the IRGC, and functioned as their “propaganda arm”.

But several of its member organisations are registered in Britain. These include the Manchester-based Hidayat TV, Ahlul Bayt TV and Al Masirah TV, the main Houthi media channel.

Another IRTVU member is LuaLua TV, which uses its online broadcasts and social media channels to heap praise on senior Hamas and Hezbollah commanders, whom it describes as martyrs and heroes.

These include Yahya Sinwar, the former head of Hamas in Gaza, thought to have planned the Oct 7 massacre; Ismail Haniyeh, another former head of Hamas in Gaza; and Hassan Nasrallah, the former head of Hezbollah. All three were assassinated by Israel in 2024.

LuaLua TV, which has offices in Wembley, north London, also hailed Qassim Soleimani as a martyr. The commander of the Iranian Quds Force, an IRGC division responsible for clandestine operations, Soleimani was assassinated by the US in 2020.

Alicia Kearns, the shadow security minister, said: “Anti-Semitic violence doesn’t come from a vacuum. Its roots lie in hate-filled propaganda. 

“For too long, pro-IRGC and openly anti-Semitic broadcasters have abused our freedoms to spread their poisonous propaganda.

“Our media platforms must never be used to legitimise hatred, extremism or terrorist propaganda. Freedom of speech cannot be used as a shield for those amplifying terrorist narratives that threaten our country.”

Are we surprised? The UK has long been intensely relaxed about allowing poisonous ideologies the freedom to promulgate their hatred here. While everyone else, from the US to the EU, has long since banned the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, we’re still dithering…