The Washington Post | By Greg Miller | July 13, 2026
The United Kingdom will declare Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist
group and place sanctions on the elite paramilitary organization that is expanding
control of the country.
The move comes after U.K. authorities linked the IRGC and its proxies to a wave of
violent plots on British soil, including bombing and assassination attempts targeting
Iranian journalists and activists in Britain.
British officials will also outlaw a shadowy Islamist militant group that has claimed
responsibility for the burning of ambulances operated by a Jewish community
organization in north London and other targets including the Israeli Embassy.
The United States designated the IRGC as a terrorist-supporting organization seven
years ago. Britain had refrained from doing so for years in part over a general
reluctance to apply the terrorist label to government entities overseas. The IRGC is a
core part of the Iranian regime, with officers who control or have influence over sectors
of the economy, military and political leadership.
The U.K. position toward Iran has hardened, however, in recent years amid a surge in
attacks. The director of MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence service, has singled out Iran
in public remarks for the past several years, saying in October that the agency had
tracked “more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots” in a 12-month period.
The Home Office said in a statement Monday that Britain would “be better protected
from foreign state-backed activity” because of the designations and that anyone
“conducting acts of sabotage including arson on behalf of these groups could face life
imprisonment.”
The move puts Britain, which maintains diplomatic relations with Iran, in direct conflict
with a hard-line Islamist force that is widely seen as having consolidated its grip on
power since the U.S.-Israel war with Iran launched in late February.
Britain is also targeting the “volunteer corps” of Russia’s GRU military intelligence
service, an organization that Western officials have linked to arson attacks, bombing
attempts and other sabotage operations across Europe.
“We will never let Britain be a playground for states who want to spread fear, division
and violence on our streets,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement, adding
that the move would “make it easier to prosecute and lock up anyone carrying out their
dirty work here in Britain.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/07/13/uk-designate-irans-islamic-
revolutionary-guard-corps-terrorist-group/