If you lift a mullah’s beard up, it says “Made in UK” – as the old conspiratorial adage goes on the streets of Iran. And the government’s refusal to proscribe the Ayatollah’s terror army – the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – is only feeding into these long-standing conspiracy theories, widely circulated in Iran, that claim Britain is propping up the Islamic regime.
All our major security allies have rightly proscribed the Shia jihadist IRGC – the chief exporter of Islamist terror, which also massacred as many as 36,500 unarmed Iranian protesters during 12 days of anti-regime unrest in Iran. This list includes the United States, Canada, Australia and the European Union (EU).
That’s right: even the usually feckless and overly bureaucratic EU has proscribed the IRGC. Despite years of excuses about “legal constraints” – not least by the EU’s socialist and anti-Israel former foreign policy chief – the 27 member states unanimously agreed to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organisation without any restraints.
Sir Keir Starmer’s government, on the other hand, remains asleep at the wheel, failing to act where all our allies have acted – and in doing so, undermining Britain’s security interests. The government now claims legal barriers prevent proscribing the IRGC because it is a state actor. This was the same excuse opponents of Hezbollah’s proscription used before it was designated a terrorist organisation – and, as with Hezbollah, it is just an excuse. Under the UK’s Terrorism Act, the IRGC clearly meets the criteria for proscription. What’s missing is not law – it’s political will.
And no, proscription is not simply symbolic as government ministers and unelected Whitehall bureaucrats would like us to think. It would have practical consequences on the IRGC’s ability to operate in the UK.
This is because the IRGC is no ordinary military force – in fact, it doesn’t even recognise itself as such. Rather, it is an armed Islamist extremist organisation that operates no differently to groups already proscribed in Britain: from Islamic State and al-Qaeda to Hezbollah, which it helped create.
Like these Islamist terror groups, the IRGC has a formal programme of indoctrination to radicalise all of its members and their families in a violent, Islamist extremist ideology. This ideology openly teaches its recruits on the necessity to wage “armed jihad” against Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians on the basis that they have “unacceptable faith” and must either convert to Islam or be killed. It also calls on its members to not only kill Iranians who oppose the Islamic regime, but torture them prior to their death on the basis that they are Moharebs or “waging war against God” – a requirement under the regime’s Islamic penal code. These aren’t just empty words. Terrorism, hostage takings and assassinations all form part of the IRGC’s modus operandi. And the threat is not simply confided to the Middle East.
The IRGC is proactively plotting terror on British streets. More than 20 IRGC-linked terror plots have been foiled by the security service since 2022 alone. One attack, however, wasn’t foiled – an attack on my best friend, British-Iranian journalist Pouria Zeraati, who was stabbed four times in an IRGC-proxy attack in Wimbledon.
The IRGC is also proactively nurturing homegrown Islamist radicalisation and terrorism on British soil through a network of mosques, charities and schools linked to the Iranian regime. In 2023-4, I exposed how a UK-based students’ group – the “Islamic Students Association of Britain” – operating out of Hammersmith had hosted online as many as eight senior IRGC commanders. In these talks, these commanders not only glorified IRGC terrorism and promoted extreme antisemitism but even called on the students to join their so-called apocalyptic army that would “bring an end to the life of the oppressors and occupiers, Zionists and Jews across the world”.
Likewise, in 2025, I revealed the head of another UK-based charity had travelled to Iran to meet with senior IRGC commanders.
These methods used by the IRGC mimic homegrown radicalisation tactics used by IS and al-Qaeda. But unlike IS and al-Qaeda – which are proscribed terrorist groups – the current UK sanctions regime does not prohibit the IRGC’s radicalisation activities or its ability to disseminate jihadi propaganda. As a result, these charities have merely been subjected to open-ended Charity Commission investigations and still remain open to this day. Proscription would fundamentally change this. It would give authorities a full mandate to intervene and prohibit any activity directly or indirectly linked to the IRGC. It would also equip our local communities – from teachers to the police force – with the necessary tools to be able to identify and prevent IRGC and Shia Islamist radicalisation. The UK’s PREVENT programme – designed to counter extremist indoctrination – is currently exclusively focused on Sunni Islamist extremism. Proscription would again change this.
But make no mistake: the refusal to proscribe the IRGC is not only putting our immediate national security at risk, but it is also significantly undermining Britain’s long-term interests in what will inevitably be a free and democratic Iran.
The collapse of the Islamic regime in Iran is no longer a question of “if” but “when.” And let’s be clear: this is absolutely in Britain’s interests. The fall of an inherently hostile Islamic regime, whose official slogan is “Death to England”, would significantly strengthen the UK’s security and unlock major economic opportunities. After all, Iran – which has one of the world’s largest oil and gas reserves – is one of the final “untapped” markets in the world and it will be fully reintegrated into the global economy after the fall of the Islamic regime.
There should be little doubt that the future leaders of a free Iran will offer preferential treatment to those nations who stood by the Iranian people against the tyrannical ayatollah. Equally, they are unlikely to forget those nations that failed to act – or worse. It is therefore absolutely critical for the UK to correct its current posture on Iran.
This requires a proactive policy. No more excuses: the government must proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organisation. But proscription alone isn’t enough. The UK must also dismantle the Islamic regime’s networks across Britain – starting with the Islamic Centre of England.
As the world’s financial capital, London can – and must – lead efforts to target the regime’s corrupt oligarchs laundering blood money in the UK. The government should immediately set up a taskforce to identify and sanction Ayatollah’s oligarchs in the UK. Treat them no differently to Putin’s corrupt oligarchs: freeze their assets and deport them from the UK.
Together, these measures would protect UK interests and impose real consequences on a regime that massacred as many as 36,500 unarmed civilians just a fortnight ago.
As it stands, Britain risks standing on the wrong side of history on Iran – but it’s not too late to reverse this.
Kasra Aarabi is the director for IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran and a British-Iranian expert on Iran’s military-security apparatus
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