Why UK plan to list Iran's IRGC as national security threat is long overdue

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has many roles, including using criminals and other proxies to target people overseas (Picture: Hossein Mersadi) | FARS NEWS/AFP via Getty Images

The UK government’s plan to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a threat to national security is as welcome as it is long overdue.

Indeed, when speaking to Jewish representatives in the Downing Street garden about the move, the Prime Minister said the IRGC had a “long history of using proxies and criminal networks to target people in the UK, including our Jewish communities”, which raises the obvious question why this step was not taken sooner.

In one year alone, at least 20 potentially lethal plots, backed by Iran, against people in this country were identified by the Security Service, MI5. This demonstrates the regime’s hostile intent and the need for a firm response.

Two other groups are also to be formally listed as national security threats: the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right, which has claimed responsibility for arson attacks targeting Jewish people, and Russia’s foreign military intelligence GRU Volunteer Corps.

“We will never let Britain be a playground for states who want to spread fear, division and violence on our streets,” said Starmer. “We have already taken tough action against the Iranian regime and those linked to it, and against Russian operatives and networks targeting our country. These new powers will make it easier to prosecute and lock up anyone carrying out their dirty work here in Britain.”

If the designations are approved by parliament, anyone caught carrying out acts of sabotage, such as arson, on behalf of these groups would face up to life imprisonment and anyone supporting them could be sent to jail for up to 14 years.

These sentences underline the seriousness of the threats posed. They should be a wake-up call to misguided fools who somehow find themselves sympathising with Vladimir Putin’s evil regime in Russia or Iran’s brutal, theocratic dictatorship, both of which kill their own citizens simply for disagreeing with them. Criminal gangs may wish to reconsider their willingness to offer their ‘services’ to these hostile states.

It may sound old-fashioned, but no one must be in any doubt whatsoever about what it means to betray your country.