UK designates Iran’s IRGC under new national security law

The government moved to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps under new national security powers that make it a criminal offence to support a listed body and raise the ceiling for some state-threat crimes to life imprisonment. Draft regulations laid before Parliament on 13 July 2026 named the IRGC, the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right, also known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyah, and Russia’s GRU Volunteer Corps as among the first bodies covered by the new regime.

The National Security (State Threats) Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 8 July 2026. Under the new framework, support for a designated body can bring up to 14 years in prison, while espionage, sabotage or foreign interference carried out for or on behalf of a designated body can carry a sentence of up to life. Prosecutors will no longer need to prove a foreign power connection in every case, lowering the evidentiary hurdle for cases involving people working with hostile groups.

The move targets Iran-linked activity in Britain and across Europe, especially incidents involving Jewish and Israeli communities and Persian-language media. IMCR publicly claimed seven attacks at UK locations, including the antisemitic arson attack on four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green on 23 March 2026. Members of the IRGC Qods Force were behind IMCR and almost certainly directed its attacks across Europe.

That Golders Green attack began at about 01:35, when the four ambulances used by the volunteer-led Jewish community service were set on fire. London Fire Brigade sent six fire engines and around 40 firefighters; exploding cylinders shattered windows in an adjacent block of flats. Police later displaced 34 nearby residents as a precaution. On 20 April, Counter Terrorism Policing was investigating a broader series of arson attacks and incidents in London, including incidents in Finchley, Hendon and Harrow, and eight arrests had been made over Golders Green, with four people charged.

In March 2025, the entire Iranian state, including the IRGC and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, was placed on the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme. The government has also sanctioned more than 550 individuals and organisations linked to the Iranian regime. Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee described Iran in July 2025 as a “wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat,” while MI5 tracked more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots in the previous year in October 2025.