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<\/a><\/p>\nPublished On 13 Jul 202613 Jul 2026<\/p>\n
The British government is pressing to use new powers allowing it to criminalise state proxies in order to designate Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a threat to national security.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued on Monday, the government announced that it was submitting draft regulations to the UK Parliament that would ban support for the IRGC. The move follows a series of anti-Semitic attacks in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
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In the statement, the government said the submission of the legislation was part of an attempt to \u201ccrack down on foreign state-backed activity in the UK\u201d, noting this would include \u201cespionage, foreign interference in our democracy, sabotage and physical attacks\u201d.<\/p>\n
Following the designation, it will be a criminal offence to invite support for or express support for the military organisation, assist them in carrying out UK-related activities, engage in conduct likely to materially assist them, or accept or retain material benefits provided by or on their behalf, according to the report.<\/p>\n
Apart from the IRGC, the UK government also listed the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right (IMCR), an Iran-backed group that claimed seven attacks on Jewish sites in the UK earlier this year, and Russia\u2019s military intelligence agency, the GRU Volunteer Corps, as \u201cthe first bodies designated under landmark new state threats powers\u201d.<\/p>\n
British police have investigated attacks on Jewish-linked sites in London, including the torching of four ambulances<\/a> belonging to a community charity in March, as anti-Semitic hate crimes. Three men were charged<\/a> with arson in April.<\/p>\n \u201cIf approved by Parliament later this week, those conducting acts of sabotage including arson on behalf of these groups could face life imprisonment,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n Caretaker Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: \u201cThese new powers will make it easier to prosecute and lock up anyone carrying out their dirty work here in Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n The new legislation gives the UK government \u201cproscription-like\u201d powers to designate foreign state proxies deemed a threat to the UK\u2019s national security. It will mean that prosecutors do not need to establish a foreign power connection in cases involving designated groups.<\/p>\n \u201cIran and Russia are using proxies and thugs to do their dirty work on our shores. I have rapidly designated three groups so those working for them will be tracked down and put behind bars,\u201d Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said.<\/p>\n Reporting from London, Al Jazeera\u2019s Charlie Angela said the designation could come into force \u201cas early as Friday\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat that\u2019s going to mean is it will become a criminal offence to support the groups in any way or to help them operate, and that could carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment,\u201d Angela said.<\/p>\n \u201cDiplomatically, it is going to mark a further deterioration in the relationship between Iran and the UK. Earlier, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper summoned the Iranian ambassador to the Foreign Office and questioned him. And that is likely going to get a strong response from Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n The government said the IRGC has \u201ca long history of using proxies and criminal networks to target people overseas \u2013 particularly the Jewish community and Iranian dissidents\u201d.<\/p>\n Tehran, \u2060which is still at war with the United States and Israel, has previously denied using proxies.<\/p>\n Regarding the GRU military intelligence service, the government said Russia was using the group \u201cfor foreign intelligence collection and hostile covert operations and has a long record of targeting the UK and its allies\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London debuts new powers targeting state proxies after accusing Iranian military organisation of engineering anti-Semitic attacks. Published On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[591,59,57,58,50,229,56,54,55,166618],"class_list":["post-689822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-europe","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-us-israel-war-on-iran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"(FILES)](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/afp_69d11f39774b-1775312697.jpg\")
Volunteer ambulances run by a Jewish organisation were set on fire overnight in March in London [File: AFP]<\/p>\n