UK bans support for Iran's IRGC

[Twiglets1]

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) will be designated a threat to national security.

Mahmood will use new government powers to ban support for the group, which has been linked to death threats, attacks and intimidation in the UK.

In a written statement to Parliament, she set out how support for the IRGC, from expressing a positive opinion to assisting them, will now be an offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Two other groups are also being proscribed, the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right (IMCR), and the volunteer corps of Russia's GRU (foreign military intelligence agency).

New powers will be given to police and intelligence agencies to tackle espionage, foreign interference, sabotage and physical attacks from these groups.

Iran's IRGC is believed to have directed seven attacks at UK locations linked to Jewish and Israeli communities.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz0jkj7e87go

The arson attack on the ambulances was done by a group called the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right (IMCR), who have taken responsibility for it. They are linked to the IRGC. On 13th July 2026 Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said:

Despite repeated warnings, Iran has continued in its attempts to undermine the safety and security of the UK through its use of criminal networks and proxy groups.

We are clear that we will not tolerate foreign-backed threats that target the UK or our allies. That’s why we are today going one step further and announcing sanctions on the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right (IMCR), otherwise known as HAYI, an organisation who have publicly claimed responsibility for 7 attacks at UK locations linked to Jewish and Israeli communities, and Persian-language media, including the antisemitic arson attack on four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green in March.

Today’s action follows my update to Parliament, where I set out that between March and May, there were a series of attacks across Europe and in the UK, and that sitting behind IMCR were members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force, who almost certainly directed IMCR attacks across Europe.

This government will never stop in its commitment to protect the Jewish community, and we continue to work urgently to stamp out vile antisemitism from our streets. I have summoned the Iranian Ambassador to reiterate this at the highest levels of the Iranian system and to condemn Iran’s malign behaviour.

Today’s announcement builds on action set out by the government today to designate the IRGC and the IMCR. The UK Government will continue to hold the Iranian regime, and those acting on its behalf, to account to protect national security and keep the British people safe.

www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-sanctions-iran-linked-criminal-group-that-publicly-claimed-responsibility-for-recent-attacks-on-jewish-locations

Not sure if I would say "asked for it". If that information about interviewing people is true.

But yes, asking random people stuff in some places is not a good idea. If I done that where I live I would expect to get into trouble. As it is, there is stuff I have posted on here that could get me arrested and jailed. And I am sure you would not be asking and documenting probing questions in Iran when you were there. Hell, even at dinner with friends one needs to be careful.

That by the way is why I do not like the reporting and deleting on many of these threads. Because when you are talking a risk to just post here, the last thing one wants is to come up against someone in the free world deciding that they want their personal censorship applied too.

Websites have to have rules if they are to run in a civilised way though @RedTagAlan even in the liberal West.

Mumsnet allow a great deal of latitude re heated arguments and people skating pretty close to things most of us don't want to see such as racism, etc.

I think more people would leave the website if it was littered with personal attacks/racism/Islamophobia/Antisemitism etc - so on the whole I think the moderation system does what it sets out to do (not that I agree with every decision the mods make but I'm sure the site would be a cesspit without them).

So people will only be prosecuted if they have accepted money to do something?

What the actual fuck? The Greens really scare me.

I don't interpret it quite that way, though people doing these things in the UK for money seems to be a factor.

But say - as an example - that someone agreed to set fire to Jewish ambulances at the request of the IRGC/IMCR just for the fun of it and didn't get paid ... I doubt that would legally let them off being punished.

We don't know the details of the bill yet though.

Me too. They are nothing like the gentle party they used to be.

Actually all extremists scare me - left and right wing.

The IRGC have not been proscribed as a terrorist organisation despite what some mumsnetters are incorrectly stating here

Always worth keeping to the truth on these threads
Lets not spread lies and proporganda

Still illegal to support the cunts though.

As I said on page one:

The Home Office said on Monday it would ban support for the IRGC, a central branch of the Iranian military, after years of political division over the issue. The move is equivalent to proscription, though not legally identical.

Lol - quite!

And as I said

Which stands

They are not a terrorist organisation unless proscribed as such

I refer to @KeeperOfTheSevenKeys response: Still illegal to support the cunts though.

The UK stance up until now is negotiation, de-escalate. Any move against the Iran state (IRGC is a part of the Iran state) is going to escalate surely so there seems to be a shift in policy.

The reason for any such a shift is unlikely to be goodies vs baddies, to be honest, more to do with pressure from big business, to do with power, And sometimes I am not sure that the consequences of decisions are always understood.

Escalation will surely send us hurtling further towards wwIII which really would not be fun and games for you or I or any of our loved ones and it would not bring about better lives for normal people anywhere.

I think we all need to be careful what we wish for to be honest. And encourage our leaders to be sensible, wise, humane and find diplomatic solutions which will be more effective. I am not supporting any one or other thing - just to be clear - I am saying that diplomacy is better than war.

I don't interpret it quite that way

Well, exactly. Yet that is clearly how it is being reported. Another grey area perhaps.

I meant I hadn't checked about the time they went, and the period before the current war. What you link is dated June 2026 and obvious the advice is against travel as the area is now a war zone...

From my link: Warnings and insurance
Still current at:
18 July 2026
Updated:
18 June 2026
Latest update:
Updated information about regional tensions and conflict affecting Iran (‘Warnings and insurance’ page).

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/iran

Like you @dowehavetonctotalkaboutthis I don't know what motivated the Foremans to travel when they did to Iran. I don't know how you expect anyone to be able to answer the question you posed, Why did the Foremans ignore the advice in the most dangerous way possible?

Maybe it was rhetorical seeing as none of us know what was in their minds.

The more we isolate Iran the more dangerous they will become, that's how it has always works... always has and always will. Look at America, they have gone back in time to isolationism. Look at how dangerous they are now. Talk of seizing ballot boxes for the mid terms.....this is Putin In the making. But if we start sending American diplomats packing and place trade embargos on American products what do you think will happen. America are already arming Argentina.

Meh the IRGC were plenty dangerous enough with their terror plots via proxies in Europe, in the US, in Australia, in Israel, in the UK.

That’s why the British government made the decision to ban support for them.

The IRGC is designated as a terrorist organisation in the EU, Australia, Canada, US, Israel, Sweden, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and lots of other countries.

The US sanctioned a London- based Muslim Brotherhood leader accused of fundraising for Hamas.

Mahmood al - Abyari … was barred from entering the US and had his assets frozen, the White House announced on Thursday.

The move is expected to pile further pressure on the Government to take tougher action against the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic movement linked to Hamas.

Britain has not banned the Muslim Brotherhood or called it a terrorist organisation, however it is outlawed in Jordan and in Egypt, where it was founded 100 years ago. The US has designated the Brotherhood’s chapters in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Sudan as terrorist entities.

Source: The Telegraph.