UK moves to ban support for Iran’s IRGC

Britain is moving to ban support for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps under new state threats powers, a step the government says is aimed at stopping foreign-backed intimidation, sabotage and attacks on UK soil.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced that the IRGC will be designated a threat to national security, alongside the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right, or IMCR, and the GRU Volunteer Corps linked to Russia’s military intelligence agency. Draft regulations are being put before Parliament, and the measures could take effect as early as Friday if approved later this week, Al Jazeera reported.

The designation would make it a criminal offence to support the IRGC or the other listed groups, including by expressing a positive opinion, inviting support, assisting their UK-related activities, materially helping them or accepting benefits from them or on their behalf. Some offences would be punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Those carrying out sabotage, including arson, on behalf of the groups could face life imprisonment.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government would not allow hostile states to use Britain as a staging ground for violence. “We will never let Britain be a playground for states who want to spread fear, division and violence on our streets,” he said. “These new powers will make it easier to prosecute and lock up anyone carrying out their dirty work here in Britain.”

Mahmood said Iran and Russia were operating through intermediaries. “Iran and Russia are using proxies and thugs to do their dirty work on our shores,” she said. “I have rapidly designated three groups so those working for them will be tracked down and put behind bars.”

The government said the measures are intended to help police and intelligence agencies tackle espionage, foreign interference, sabotage and physical attacks. They also mean prosecutors would no longer have to prove a foreign power connection in every case involving a designated group, which ministers say will make prosecutions more straightforward.

British authorities believe the IRGC directed seven attacks at UK locations linked to Jewish and Israeli communities. The BBC reported that those included the antisemitic arson attack on four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green on March 23, which the IMCR publicly claimed responsibility for. Al Jazeera reported that British police investigated attacks on Jewish-linked sites in London, including the torching of four ambulances belonging to a community charity in March, as antisemitic hate crimes, and that three men were charged with arson in April.

MI5 identified at least 20 potentially lethal Iranian-backed plots against people in the UK in the last year, according to the BBC. The government said the IRGC has “a long history of using proxies and criminal networks to target people overseas – particularly the Jewish community and Iranian dissidents.” Tehran has previously denied using proxies, Al Jazeera reported.

Home Office minister Angela Eagle said in a written statement that the IRGC is “a central component of the Iranian state’s security apparatus, answerable directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader.” She added: “Its role extends far beyond that of a conventional military force. It encompasses intelligence activity, the use of proxy actors, and the projection of influence designed to advance Iranian state objectives.”

The IRGC was created after Iran’s 1979 revolution to defend the country’s Islamic system and has grown into a powerful state arm with operations beyond Iran’s borders and an estimated 190,000 active personnel. Western governments have repeatedly accused it of sponsoring terrorism abroad. Australia, Canada and the United States list it as a terror group, and the European Union added it to its terror list in January, the BBC reported.

The UK government also said Russia uses the GRU Volunteer Corps for foreign intelligence collection and covert hostile operations, with a record of targeting Britain and its allies.