L

Lord Polak (Con)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 15 January 2026

Debate

Iran

Contribution

The Minister will not be surprised that I listened carefully to what she said about proscription when she talked about state-backed entities—I am glad that the noble Lord, Lord Hanson, is also in his place—because that was the same argument used in relation to Hezbollah in Lebanon. They said at the time that Hezbollah was part of the Lebanese Government but, heigh-ho, Hezbollah was proscribed. I am sure the Minister has that in her mind. I want to follow up on what the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, said. He was absolutely right about the IRGC. Perhaps an example of what he was alluding to are the reports that the IRGC has used two UK-registered cryptocurrency exchanges to move about $1 billion since 2023, evading international sanctions in the process. Can the Minister comment on those reports? What steps are HMG taking to stop the UK being used as a clearing house for Iran’s terrorist thugs?

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