On June 4, 2023, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs hosted a National Security Session with Iranian human rights activist Vahid Beheshti; his wife, Coventry city Councillor Mattie Heaven; and UK politician Lord Stuart Pollock. They discussed the rise in terror by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) including 10 attempted assassination and hostage-taking incidents since January 2023 reported by MI5, and terror attacks in the UK, Europe, and the United States.

They also discussed activists’ pleas for major world leaders to prescribe the IRGC as a terrorist organization and called on the UK to take action. Many countries are looking to the UK to see what they are doing.

Vahid Beheshti is a well-known Iranian human rights activist. Recently he undertook a 72-day hunger strike to demand that the UK government proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organization and a threat to British society. He believes that targeting the IRGC is targeting the heart of the Iranian regime.

Mattie Heaven, an Iranian-born British citizen, is the Conservative Party Chairman for the West Midlands region and Vahid Beheshti’s wife. She directs a human rights organization that focuses on women’s rights and freedom of religion and has been fighting Islamist extremism and the Iranian regime.

Lord Stuart Pollock is a Life Peer in the British House of Lords. He believes the problem in declaring the IRGC as a terrorist organization is partially due to the Americans prioritizing connections and good standing with Iran.