Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the government of Iran on the 15 per cent increase in its budget for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps; and what assessment he has made of the potential implications of that increase for regional security.

We remain concerned about Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) activity in the region, and most recently raised our concerns about regional security with Iran on 20 January in Tehran. The IRGC is a proscribed organisation by the EU, listed due to actions relating to Iran’s support for terrorism and human rights reasons.