Britain has listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, escalating diplomatic tensions with Tehran as it also outlawed a proxy group behind a series of arson attacks on Jewish sites in Britain.The Home Office on Monday announced a ban on support for the IRGC, the central branch of the Iranian military, after years of political division over the issue. This step is equivalent to an injunction, although not legally the same.“The Home Secretary has concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that each of these entities is involved in foreign power threatening activity,” the Home Office said in a statement.The government has also outlawed the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right (IMCR), which has been blamed for a series of attacks on Jewish targets in Britain. Security Minister Angela Eagle said the IMCR claimed seven attacks in Britain, including setting fire to a synagogue and a Jewish charity ambulance in London, as well as a Persian-language media outlet critical of the Iranian government.“Behind the IMCR sat members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, who almost certainly directed IMCR attacks across Europe,” Eagle said.The group emerged online earlier this year and has also claimed responsibility for synagogue attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.The government said it was imposing sanctions on the IRGC after a series of threats on British soil, including a plot to assassinate two Iran International Television journalists as well as cyber attacks on British targets. The move would reverse the previous Conservative government’s decision not to ban the organization and make it a criminal offense to support it in any way.
Attacks are increasing in Europe
Law enforcement officials say Iran-backed proxy groups are behind the growing attacks in Europe, mostly targeting the Jewish community and Persian-language media critical of the Iranian government. They usually work by recruiting members of criminal groups to carry out sabotage.Arson attacks include a fire in March that destroyed four Hatzolah ambulances in Golders Green, north London, which caused multiple explosions from gas canisters on board. Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said at the time that police were investigating whether a possible Islamic group linked to Iran was behind the attack.“The rapid increase in Iranian state threats in recent years is serious: hostile state surveillance activity, 20 disrupted plots, and a recent attempted attack on an Iranian diaspora,” Rowley said.Earlier this month, two Romanians were jailed for the stabbing death of a journalist from a Persian-language television station, an attack the judge said was carried out on behalf of the Iranian state.In January the European Union listed the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization over Tehran’s crackdown on protests. There was no immediate comment from Iran.