Politico:

The U.K. government is set to ignore calls to designate a key wing of Iran’s military as a terrorist group amid fears of a diplomatic breakdown between London and Tehran.

Government figures have told POLITICO that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is leaning against proscribing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group — despite the governing Labour Party’s having called for this when in opposition.

The IRGC — designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada and Sweden — has an estimated strength of 125,000 soldiers and is tasked with upholding the Iranian regime’s theocratic Islamic system domestically.

Its overseas wing, the Quds Force, is accused of managing Iranian proxies including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon — both proscribed as terrorist groups by the U.K. government.

The Telegraph reported last month that No. 10 was reviewing whether to label the IRGC as a terrorist group after backlash from some Labour MPs over the U.K.’s decision to ban some arms exports to Israel.

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