Speaking at meeting in Parliament hosted by Bob Blackman MP and the National Council Resistance in Iran, Dame Theresa Villiers reflected on the third anniversary of the start of major anti-government protests in Iran. She told the gathering:
“The uprising following the killing of Mahsa Amini began almost exactly three years ago in September 2022.
I pay tribute to the brave men and women who took to the streets to call for freedom and democracy. The subsequent crackdown was appalling. It is shocking that there continues to be a record number of executions and mass arrests.
But despite its brutality, the mullahs have been unable to silence the growing demands for change. Protests continue, showing that people in Iran reject tyranny, whether from a monarchy or a theocracy.
A key recent development here in the UK was the publication in July of a detailed report by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, the ISC; a committee of which I used to be a member.
The committee concluded that “Iran poses a wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat to the UK, UK nationals, and UK interests.” Its chair, Lord Beamish, described Iran’s intelligence services as “ferociously well-resourced.” The regime “supplements this with use of proxy groups, including criminal networks and terrorist organisations.”
The committee reports that the head of MI5 told them that Iran is present across “the full spectrum of the kinds of threats we have to be concerned with”. They conclude that Iran poses a wide-ranging threat to UK national security, which should not be underestimated.
Disruptive cyber-attacks are used by Tehran to damage and contain adversaries and could potentially cause damage in the UK.
The ISC highlight that one of Tehran’s main objectives is “silencing criticism of Iran, either from the UK directly or from those residing in the UK”.
They conclude that since the beginning of 2022, there has been a significant increase in the physical threat posed by Iran to people residing in the UK. That threat is focused acutely on opponents of the regime.
The Iranian Intelligence Services have shown that they are willing to attempt assassination within the UK, and kidnap from the UK. The committee tell us that the regime uses assassination as an instrument of state policy. There have been at least 15 attempts at murder or kidnap against British nationals, or UK-based individuals, since the beginning of 2022.
This is a landmark report from the ISC and it is vital that the UK Government takes action on the threats it sets out.
Iran has already been placed in the enhanced tier of the new Foreign Agents Registration Scheme. Now Ministers need to ensure these tough new rules are enforced; and that people violating them by covertly acting for the regime are prosecuted and expelled.
I also want to see all UN Security Council resolutions and sanctions against the regime’s nuclear programme snapped back and reimposed.
And as the ISC says, the UK Government must move on from an approach which has too often focused on short term firefighting, and develop a much longer term strategy on Iran.
In conclusion, for many years I have called for democratic change and reform in Iran, and I will continue to do so. The people of Iran deserve far better than the oppression and brutality inflicted on them by the mullahs.
They need the kind of democratic, secular republic set out in the NCRI’s 10 point plan, a plan that envisions gender equality, the rule of law, and free and fair elections. I sincerely hope that one day soon the Iranian people will achieve that freedom.
It is an honour to be here today with so many people who have sacrificed so much in seeking a better brighter future for Iran.”
During her time as MP, Theresa Villiers engaged with many minority groups in her constituency including British-Iranian community. Responding to their concerns, she spoke out many times in Parliament to condemn human rights abuses in Iran. She was also a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament from 2019 to 2024.
