Iran’s Influence in the Middle East

John Howell Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd March 2017 Westminster Hall

[Dr Offord]

I am going to focus purely on the influence within the region. If other hon. Members wish to concern themselves with conditions in Iran itself, that will be very welcome.

[John Howell (Henley) (Con)]

To pick up on the previous intervention, something that links Iran’s international and the domestic activities is that it has passed a new counter-terrorism law to try to clean up the country. At least, that is what it claims—but it does not include Hezbollah and Hamas. Does my hon. Friend agree that that is the most worrying sign of all?

[Dr Offord]

That certainly is a worrying sign. As I will go on to explain, those organisations are some of the recipients of significant amounts of resources that come from the Iranian regime.

--- Later in debate ---

[John Howell (Henley) (Con)]

I will not cover the points made by others about Iran’s being a sponsor of state terrorism, although I may refer to that in a moment. I will pick up on a point that was made in passing by my right hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet (Mrs Villiers) about the Financial Action Task Force. In June 2016, the plenary and working group of the Financial Action Task Force—I shall call it FATF to try to speed things up—announced it would keep Iran on its blacklist, citing concerns over the risk of financing terrorism that Iran showed.

FATF is an intergovernmental organisation that sets global standards to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. It warned of the threat that Iran posed to the international financial system and advised the business community to conduct special due diligence exercises when considering business relationships and transactions with Iran. That is something we should all bear in mind. FATF has now suspended mandatory counter-measures on Iran for a year, based on the promises that Tehran would take steps to address deficiencies and implement the action plan that it had set up with the organisation.

The big point is that Iran has declined to abandon its continued support for Hezbollah, Hamas and other terror organisations. Iran has claimed it is making progress, as I mentioned in an intervention, by passing a counter-terrorism law last year that, it claims, will enable it to comply with FATF standards and will

“send a message of goodwill”

to financial bodies worldwide over doing business with its banks. However, the terror organisations, Hamas and Hezbollah, are simply not subject to that law. Iran’s central bank deputy for anti-money laundering affairs recently said that

“liberation organizations”—

which is what he calls Hezbollah and Hamas—

“are not subject to this law and the Supreme National Security Council decides who is a terrorist.”

Iran has given a familiar gesture to world organisations as to what it can do with FATF’s statements, and we should resist that.

Let me comment a bit on terrorism and Hezbollah, because I think that is one of the most dangerous examples of Iranian influence. Hon. Members do not have to believe me on that; a top Iranian general told a Kuwaiti newspaper that Iran has established rocket factories in Lebanon that are under the full control of Hezbollah. That indicates, in microcosm, the importance of the debate, which I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon (Dr Offord) on securing, and the importance of the subject we are discussing.