Iran’s IRGC the ‘biggest threat to Britain’s national security’, says Home Secretary

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is the biggest threat to Britain’s national security, the home secretary has said.

A source close to Suella Braverman told the Sunday Times: “The Iranian threat is the one that worries us the most” amid growing fears that the IRGC is stepping up its activities, including the targeting of Israeli opponents of the Tehran regime living in the UK.

“The Iranian threat is the one that worries us the most,” a source close to the home secretary told the newspaper.

“It’s a big issue because they are getting much more aggressive and their appetite is increasing. They are very defensive to anyone challenging their regime and just want to stamp it out. They are increasing their agitation.”

A Home Office insider also told the Financial Times that the fear that Iranian agents are plotting to kill British citizens, including prominent Jewish figures, is “something that keeps the security people up at night.”

The FT reports of growing tensions between Braverman and James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, over whether to proscribe Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation.

Last week the Jewish Chronicle published an investigation into the  Islamic Students Association of Britain, which is based at a former Methodist church in west London.

It was reported that the group hosted online discussions seen by thousands of viewers between senior commanders from the IRGC and Muslim students at British universities.

Eight IRGC representatives were alleged to have made speeches containing antisemitic statements, including claims the Holocaust was “fake”.

The association’s ex chairman, Mohammad Hussain Ataee, attended a conference in Tehran where he met Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the report added.

According to an investigation by the Jewish Chronicle, the students’ association last week hosted online discussions seen by thousands of viewers between senior commanders from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Muslim students at British universities, where eight IRGC representatives are alleged to have made speeches containing antisemitic statements.

In response, the association said its activities were “clearly lawful.”

In February Tom Tugendhat, security minister, said the Iranian government had been behind 15 credible threats to kill or kidnap British citizens or UK-based people in just over a year. 

Cleverly is among those resisting proscribing the IRGC over fears the move would be counterproductive, with concerns it would lead to retaliation by Tehran against UK-Iranian dual nationals in the country.

It would also further harm any possibility of saving the 2015 nuclear accord that Iran signed with world powers, including the UK.

America proscribed the IRGC a terrorist organisation in 2019, during the Trump administration.

The UK has been reviewing a similar move since the start of the year.

Labour has also argued in favour of proscribing the IRGC.

Last month Cleverly announced a new sanctions regime that would, he claimed, give the UK greater powers to target Iran’s key decision makers.

Government sources also say Braverman’s attempt to heap pressure on the foreign office to back the move is proving to be “unhelpful.”

A UK government spokesman said: “We will continue to take strong action against Iran while they threaten people in the UK and around the world. The UK has sanctioned more than 350 Iranian individuals and entities, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in its entirety.”