Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood reasonably believes that the IRGC is, or has been, involved in foreign power threat activity, a written ministerial statement says
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
Keir Starmer said the powerful military force will be designated a threat to national security with members facing up to life imprisonment.
The IRGC will be among the first bodies designated under landmark new state threats power. The Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right (IMCR) and Russia’s GRU Volunteer Corps will also be designated.
If approved by Parliament later this week, those conducting acts of sabotage including arson on behalf of these groups could face life imprisonment.
The IMCR has publicly claimed seven attacks linked to Jewish and Israeli communities in the UK, and Persian-language media, including the antisemitic arson attack on four Hatzola ambulances in north London in March.
Sitting behind IMCR were members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force, who almost certainly directed IMCR attacks across Europe, the Home Office said.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood reasonably believes that the IRGC is, or has been, involved in foreign power threat activity, a written ministerial statement said.
The statement, from security minister Angela Eagle, continued: “For a body to be designated, the Home Secretary must reasonably believe that it is, or has been, involved in foreign power threat activity and must consider that designation is necessary to protect the safety or interests of the United Kingdom.
“Having considered the available evidence and taken advice from across Government and operational partners, the Home Secretary is satisfied that the statutory test is met in respect of the following three bodies.”
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