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The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) today called on the Federal Government to emulate its Canadian counterpart and list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.

The Trudeau Government’s announcement is “a welcome and timely development that now brings Canada into line with our major ally, the US,” AIJAC Executive Director Dr Colin Rubenstein said.

“The listing recognises the dire threat posed by the IRGC, which is the real power supporting the Iranian regime, and our Government should make it a priority to list the IRGC under Australia’s Criminal Code.

“This call has grown more urgent, given Iran’s ongoing destabilisation activities in the Middle East, not only through Iran’s proxy terror organisations – Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Ansar Allah in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon, among others – but, as we saw in May, with its unprecedented direct attack from Iranian soil on Israel involving hundreds of drones and missiles. Not to mention the global threat from Iran which everyone agrees today is effectively a nuclear weapons threshold state.

“Yet, Australia finds itself in the absurd situation, whereby we have listed Hezbollah, Ansar Allah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, all essentially branches of the IRGC, as terrorist groups but have quarantined the umbrella organisation.”

Dr Rubenstein said the argument put forward by the Federal Government against the IRGC’s listing is flawed and based on a “technicality”.

“The Government claims that as a state entity, the IRGC is not covered by the terrorist organisation provisions in the Criminal Code. But as we have repeatedly said, if current laws prevent the IRGC’s listing under the current Criminal Code, then amend the legislation. This is what the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee proposed in February 2023 when it recommended listing the IRGC.

“Since the ayatollahs usurped the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the IRGC has existed to protect and export its destructive Islamist agenda. Unfortunately, 45 years later, there is no sign the regime is ready to moderate,” he concluded.