UK to classify IRGC as terror group after Brit executed

UK officials are weighing numerous punitive measures against Tehran, after the Islamic Regime executed a British national.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

The British government is set to officially classify Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terror group, following the Islamic Republic’s execution of a British citizen on Saturday.

The execution sparked outrage from the UK government, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying he was “appalled by the execution of British-Iranian citizen Alireza Akbari” and calling the move a “callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people.”

Shortly after news of Akbar’s execution was made public, UK officials summoned the Iranian chargé d’affaires in London for a dressing down.

According to a report from UK outlet The Guardian, the UK is considering a number of punitive measures against Iran, including a travel ban and asset freeze of accounts belonging to Iran’s prosecutor general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri.

Officially classifying the IRGC as a terror group would have serious consequences for Iran regarding its assets in the UK and other European countries.

Iranian resources abroad could potentially be seized or frozen, and sanctions against the country which are meant to be lifted later this year may remain in place. The EU is set to follow the UK’s policy towards Iran, The Guardian reported.

Deeming the IRGC as a terror group would mark a major shift in relations between the UK and Iran.

Although the two countries have had strained ties in recent years, the UK has repeatedly attempted to coax Iran into a return to the 2015 nuclear deal, and the country has maintained an embassy in Tehran since the Islamic revolution in 1979, when the U.S. broke off ties with Iran.

In 2022, UK’s intelligence agencies and police warned Iranian dissidents living in the country that agents operating on behalf of Tehran were targeting them for kidnapping and murder.

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