UK bans Iran-backed group and Revolutionary Guard over attacks on Jewish sites
The British government announced sanctions against the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right and Iran's Revolutionary Guard, linking them to recent arson and vandalism targeting Jewish institutions in the UK and Europe.
The United Kingdom said on Monday that a series of arson and vandalism incidents at Jewish sites were carried out by a proxy group supported by Iran, and it moved to ban the group and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Security Minister Angela Eagle announced the prohibition of the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right (IMCR), also known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, and the IRGC's Quds Force, the Guard’s expeditionary unit.
"Sitting behind IMCR were members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force, who almost certainly directed IMCR attacks across Europe," Eagle said. The IMCR claimed responsibility for seven incidents in Britain, including fires at synagogues, a Jewish charity ambulance service and a Persian-language media outlet critical of Tehran. No injuries were reported. The group, which emerged online earlier this year, has also asserted involvement in synagogue attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands. British authorities said Iran-backed proxies are increasingly targeting Jewish communities and Persian-language media across Europe, often recruiting criminal elements to conduct sabotage. Earlier this month, two Romanian men received prison sentences for stabbing a journalist from a Persian-language television station, a case the judge described as being carried out on behalf of the Iranian state. Iran has not commented on the sanctions.