Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) will be designated a threat to national security.
Mahmood will use new government powers to ban support for the group, which has been linked to death threats, attacks and intimidation in the UK.
In a written statement to Parliament, she set out how support for the IRGC, from expressing a positive opinion to assisting them, will now be an offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Two other groups are also being proscribed, the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right (IMCR), and the volunteer corps of Russia’s GRU (foreign military intelligence agency).
New powers will be given to police and intelligence agencies to tackle espionage, foreign interference, sabotage and physical attacks from these groups.
Iran’s IRGC is believed to have directed seven attacks at UK locations linked to Jewish and Israeli communities, including the antisemitic arson attack on four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green on March 23, which the IMCR publicly claimed responsibility for.
The prime minister promised to fast-track the National Security (State Threats) Act in April this year, and draft regulations for proscription can now be laid before parliament.
Announcing the new powers, Sir Keir Starmer said: “We will never let Britain be a playground for states who want to spread fear, division and violence on our streets.
“We have already taken tough action against the Iranian regime and those linked to it, and against Russian operatives and networks targeting our country.
“These new powers will make it easier to prosecute and lock up anyone carrying out their dirty work here in Britain.”
If approved by Parliament later this week, those conducting acts of sabotage including arson on behalf of these groups could face life imprisonment.
The change means prosecutors will no longer need to establish a foreign power connection in every case, making it easier and more straightforward to build cases.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “Iran and Russia are using proxies and thugs to do their dirty work on our shores.
“I have rapidly designated three groups so those working for them will be tracked down and put behind bars.”
MI5 identified at least 20 potentially lethal Iranian-backed plots against people in the UK in the last year, and the IRGC is central to the Iranian state’s operations, which particularly targets the Jewish community and Iranian dissidents.
The IRGC was set up after the 1979 revolution to defend the country’s new Islamic system, but has since become a powerful arm of the state with a reach beyond Iran’s borders and an estimated 190,000 active personnel.
The militia has consistently been accused by Western nations of sponsoring terrorism abroad, and has been listed as a terror group by Australia, Canada and the US.
In January this year, the European Union also added the IRGC to its terror list, following its reported role in brutal crackdowns on Iranian protesters in Iran the same month.
The UK has lagged behind but now argues new powers are required in the face of a rise in state-backed aggression – increasing in scope and complexity with more threats to life and increased use of proxy groups.
In a written statement, Home Office minister Angela Eagle said: “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a central component of the Iranian state’s security apparatus, answerable directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader.
“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.”