The UK government has introduced sweeping new powers to target foreign state-linked groups, including Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The National Security (State Threats) Bill, introduced on Tuesday, grants authorities the ability to crack down on organizations involved in activities such as assassination plots, surveillance, and sabotage. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood would have the authority to designate groups responsible for what the government calls 'foreign power threat activity,' with supporting designated organizations or accepting money from them potentially carrying prison sentences of up to 14 years.
British intelligence officials have warned of increasing Iran-backed activity inside the UK. Last year, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum reported that the security service had tracked more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots and recorded a 35% increase in state-threat investigations. The UK has also investigated possible Iranian links to recent incidents, including arson attacks targeting Jewish sites.
Nasrin Roshan, a British-Iranian woman who claims to have been brutally beaten and tortured by the IRGC, has called for the UK to join the US and Europe in proscribing the group as a terrorist organization. The IRGC has been linked to a string of kidnaps, assassinations, and terror attacks, as well as funding proxy groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. The group was also behind a deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters in Iran earlier this year, resulting in the deaths of at least 30,000 people.