The UK Security Minister Tom Tugendhat and Home Secretary Suella Braverman are supporting a move to officially declare Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist group, reports say.
The announcement is expected to be made within weeks, The Daily Telegraph reported, and follows UK officials building the case against the IRGC and security services sharing intelligence.
When the group has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation it will become a criminal offence to belong to the IRGC, attend its meetings, carry its logo in public or encourage support of its activities.
Whitehall clearly regards the Corps as a substantial threat to the UK as the designation would place it on a similar legal footing to Al Qaeda and ISIS.
The move would follow action by the US and Canada, two of the UK’s partners in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, which also includes Australia and New Zealand.
Action against the IRGC could complicate obtaining a new nuclear deal with Iran to curb its pursuit of nuclear weapons, and marks a hardening of the UK’s policy towards Tehran.
Ken McCallum, the MI5 Director General, gave a rare public speech last November on Iran and its threat to the UK, which included detailing past plots.
“Iran projects threat to the UK directly, through its aggressive intelligence services,” Mr McCallum said.
“At its sharpest, this includes ambitions to kidnap or even kill British or UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the regime.
“We have seen at least 10 such potential threats since January alone.”
Iran's nuclear programme - in pictures
-
New generation Iranian centrifuges on display for Iran's National Nuclear Energy Day in Tehran, in April 2021. Iranian Presidency Office / Wana -
President Ebrahim Raisi, second right, is accompanied by Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran chief Mohammad Eslami, at Nuclear Technology Day in Tehran in April 2022. Iranian presidency / AFP -
Mr Raisi and Mr Eslami at the April 2022 event. Iranian presidency / AFP -
The Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant during a visit by Mr Raisi in October 2021. Iranian Presidency / AFP -
Iran's Arak Heavy Water Reactor complex, south of the capital Tehran in January 2020. Maxar Technologies / AFP -
A satellite image of Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in January 2020. Maxar Technologies / AFP -
A satellite image of Iran's underground Natanz nuclear site in May 2022. Planet Labs PBC / AP -
A satellite image in January 2020 of Iran's Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, north-east of the city of Qom. Maxar Technologies / AFP -
The Sanjarian nuclear centre, east of Tehran, in May 2021. Maxar Technologies / AFP
Mr Tugendhat is regarded as a driver of the designation and said last month that Iran had continued plotting against British targets despite Mr McCallum’s speech.
A Farsi-language TV station based in the UK claimed last November that an Iranian hit squad in London aimed to murder two of its British-Iranian journalists.
The channel accused the IRGC of aiming to attack its journalists, who were not identified. Scotland Yard declined to comment at the time.
The IRGC was formed after Iran’s 1979 revolution as an ideological custodian of the country’s new religious values.
The organisation has since grown to be a major military, political and economic force in the country.
The IRGC now controls Iran’s elite armed and intelligence forces, and provides support to militant groups in places such as Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan.
When Donald Trump was president of the US, he pulled the country out of a nuclear deal with Iran and designated the IRCG a terrorist organisation, in April 2019.
The move caused Hassan Rouhani, who was Iranian president at the time, to accuse Mr Trump of being a “leader of world terrorism”.
Canada also banned more than 10,000 IRCG officers and senior members from entering the country last October and followed with the promise of more sanctions.
It also classified the group under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which Canada usually implements for those accused of the most serious war crimes.
Iran displays drones at secret underground base - in pictures
-
Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri, left, Iran's Armed Forces Chief of Staff, and Maj Gen Abdolrahim Mousavi, Army Commander-in-Chief, visit an underground drone base at an undisclosed location in Iran. AFP -
Iranian state media revealed the existence of a drone base, said to be in the Zagros Mountains, in reports on a visit to the facility by Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri, left, Iran's Armed Forces Chief of Staff. Reuters -
The Iranian Army released photos of a wide variety of drones lined up in long tunnels. AFP -
Iranian Army drones believed to be held at an underground facility in the Zagros Mountains, a range that runs 1,600 kilometres through Iran, Iraq and Turkey. AFP -
An army drone at an underground drone base somewhere in Iran. AFP -
An army drone at an underground drone base somewhere in Iran. Senior officers in the Iranian military say its drone force gives it regional leadership. AFP -
An Iranian military drone is inspected at a secret underground site. Reuters -
Iran's unmanned aircraft programme has come up with dozens of kinds of drones since the middle of the 1980s. AFP -
Reminders of the Iranian Army's revolutionary heritage are seen at an underground facility when drones are stored. AFP -
An army drone at an underground base somewhere in Iran. AFP -
An army drone at an underground base somewhere in Iran. AFP -
An army drone at an underground base somewhere in Iran. AFP -
Iran's missile development has come along in tandem with programmes to developed military drones. AFP -
Iran's Armed Forces Chief of Staff Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri and Army Commander-in-Chief Maj Gen Abdolrahim Mousavi. AFP -
Photos from an underground Iranian military base show development of several drone platforms. AFP -
A heavy payload for a drone at a secret underground base somewhere in Iran. AFP -
Iran introduced the IAIO Fotros surveillance drone late in 2013. AFP -
Iran's developing missile technology has been used by Tehran's allies around the Middle East. AFP -
An army drone at an underground base somewhere in Iran. Reuters -
An army drone at an underground base somewhere in Iran. AFP -
An army drone at an underground base somewhere in Iran. Reuters
In Britain, public displays in support of the IRGC have become more common, but they would become illegal if the group were proscribed.
In May 2021, an IRGC flag was unfurled during an anti-Israel demonstration in Trafalgar Square. One Iranian news agency repeatedly ran footage showing the flag.
The event prompted calls for action to be taken against the Corps, including from Mr Tugendhat, who at the time was on the backbench and chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee.
Stephen Crabb, the Tory MP and parliamentary Commons chairman of Conservative Friends of Israel, said he supports proscribing the IRGC.
“This would be a very welcome move. It is a step that a number of our key allies have already taken,” Mr Crabb said.
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is playing a key role supporting and facilitating the Iranian regime’s destabilising activities in the Middle East and beyond.
“It is very, very clear that the international community needs to take much stronger and clear-sighted action against Iran.”
Canada declares Iran's IRGC a ‘terrorist organisation’ - video
“Proscribing the IRGC would demonstrate to Iran that it can’t be business as usual,” said Lord Eric Pickles, the parliamentary Lords chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel.
Suggestions that the IRGC is a terrorist group has always been played down by Iranian politicians and officials, who have repeatedly defended its actions as a legitimate extension of the state.
Under the Terrorism Act 2000, the home secretary has the right to proscribe an organisation if it is reasonably believed that the body is involved in terrorism and it is proportionate to do so.
So far, 78 terrorist organisations have been proscribed under law.
“While the government keeps the list of proscribed organisations under review, we do not comment on whether a specific organisation is or is not being considered for proscription,” a government spokesman said.
