U.K. to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group
U.K. authorities have linked the IRGC and its proxies to a wave of violent plots on British soil
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.”
