Vahid Beheshti, 48, a journalist and human rights activist, claimed that officials within the department are preventing the government from taking action against the IRGC.

“There is an obstacle within the FCDO blocking the proscription of the IRGC, and it is the civil servants,” Beheshti told the JC from his makeshift encampment on King Charles Street.

“The so-called ‘Iran experts’ advising them are not experts – they are regime lobbyists,” he added.

His comments come amid mounting frustration among campaigners over the UK’s failure to follow the US in outlawing the IRGC. In opposition, Labour pledged to proscribe the IRGC, but in government, it has so far failed to implement the promise.

Beheshti, who was hospitalised after a 72-day long hunger strike in 2023, warned that, at the current pace, Iran’s brutal authoritarian regime may even collapse before Britain proscribes its military arm, which has been accused of numerous human rights abuses.

He spoke to the JC on the second anniversary of his “peace camp” outside the FCDO, which he began to call for the IRGC’s proscription but now says he will not leave until the Islamic Republic falls.

“Twenty-eight years ago, I was one of the lucky ones,” Beheshti said. “I escaped after being arrested twice. My life was in danger, and I knew the regime had a plan for me.”

After leaving his home country, Beheshti sought a normal life in the UK but soon turned to activism. He founded Dorr TV, a Persian news channel that now has over 700,000 members and has mobilised protesters inside Iran. But the risks are enormous.

For instance, Ruhollah Zam, a family friend of the Beheshtis and founder of AmadNews, was abducted from exile in France, forcibly returned to Iran, and executed after what Amnesty International described as an unfair trial.

“That is the price we pay for our fight,” Beheshti said.

Three years ago, he shifted his focus to pressuring the UK to ban the IRGC. “It is the main organisation that suppresses and murders people in Iran and carries out terrorist activities abroad.”

From inside his chilly tent, warmed only by a gas heater, Beheshti is surrounded by images of Iranian civilians killed by the IRGC.

As the death toll rises, more photographs are pinned to the walls. Some of the victims were said to have been raped before being murdered. Many were tortured.

One victim was just nine years old when he was shot dead. Another was 16 when she was sexually assaulted before she was killed.

In 2024 alone, at least 901 people were executed by the authorities, including around 40 in a single week in December, according to the United Nations.

“You have a great military of 80 million Iranians on the ground, they are ready, they are thirsty for freedom and democracy – and they have had many uprisings, especially since 2009, but because of the level of the brutality and barbarism, they have not been successful,” he said.

“They need a little bit of support. Israel and America should give them the support they need.”

Indeed, Beheshti visited Israel last year and addressed the Knesset about the threat of the IRGC. “I asked the leaders how long we are going to engage ourselves with the tentacle of terrorism?”

He added: “Of course, we have to defeat Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Assad in Syria – the hub of terrorism at the time – but we need to focus on the core of all of these terrorists which is the Iranian regime.”

It is this mission that informs Beheshti’s staunch support of Israel. He sees the threat posed to the Jewish state and the terror imposed on the Iranian people as two sides of the same coin.

Beheshti thinks that the end of the Islamic Republic will reveal the true extent of the ayatollahs’ network of influence in the West. In the UK, the JC has reported on numerous charitable bodies and organisations accused of working hand-in-hand with the IRGC.

“We will only understand the full influence of this regime when it falls because when the source of the funding dries up we will see the real effect of what they are doing in this country.

“People have no idea of the scale of the influence of the Iranian regime even here in London. We can see how they mobilise thousands of people on the streets of London.”

Source: IMFAT