The British government on Monday accused an arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of almost certainly directing a wave of attacks against Jews across Europe and took steps to designate the powerful security apparatus as a terrorist organization.
The decision gives the government additional national security powers to prevent terrorist attacks and foreign threats under a new law that includes stiffer criminal charges.
The move is part of Britain’s continued push to forcefully call out the Iranian threat to Britain. The Guards Corps has traditionally targeted critics of the Iranian regime but took a more ominous and violent turn after the start of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.
“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.
While Britain only participated in defensive strikes since the war began, this apparently did not stop Iran from retaliating against Jews in Britain, America’s closest ally.
An Iranian proxy called the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right, or Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya, targeted Jewish communities, journalists and Israeli interests in Britain and across Europe during a two-month stretch from March to May. It claimed responsibility for seven attacks in Britain.
The attacks triggered fear in Jewish communities, which were already on edge because of rising antisemitism. Britain said that Iran relies on criminal gangs to do the “regime’s bidding overseas,” providing a clue about how Tehran recruits people to mount the attacks.
The government also designated the Iranian proxy and a group under the control of Russian military intelligence using the new law. Britain has previously sanctioned the I.R.G.C.
If approved by Parliament, the government says they will be first designations made under the 2026 National Security Act.
The decision to label the organizations as terrorist groups comes after federal prosecutors in New York in May charged a commander of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia that is a proxy for the Guards Corps, with leading the attacks in Europe and being part of a retaliation campaign by Iran. Kataib Hezbollah has helped Tehran project power across the region.
The complaint accused the militia commander, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, of planning at least 20 attacks against U.S. and Israeli interests in Europe and Canada since late February. Mr. al-Saadi was detained in Turkey and handed over to U.S. authorities. He has since pleaded not guilty.
He was also charged with plotting to attack Jewish sites in the United States, including a synagogue in New York City. And he claimed on a secretly recorded call that he was behind two attacks in Canada that targeted the U.S. consulate in Toronto and a synagogue, according to the complaint.
Britain implicated the Guards Corps’ Quds Force in the European attacks. The Quds Force is an elite unit known for overseeing Iran’s proxies across the Middle East. In 2020, the United States killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the head of the Quds Force.
In the case of Russia, the British government banned a network of volunteer operatives and proxies overseen by Russia’s military intelligence service known as the G.R.U.
The government noted that the network — identified as the Volunteer Corps — includes some remnants of the former Wagner Group, a mercenary organization that has fought in Ukraine, Syria and Africa.
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