Breaking: UK Proscribes Iran's IRGC As A Terrorist Organisation, Says Report

The UK has proscribed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as ​a terrorist organisation. The IRGC has been in the spotlight for Tehran’s attacks across the Middle East and squashing demonstrations.

The United Kingdom has proscribed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation, Sky News reported on ⁠Monday. The move would make it a criminal offence to belong to the group, attend its meetings or carry its logo in ‌public in the United Kingdom.

The ⁠IRGC, which is already subject to British sanctions, has served as an elite ⁠military force loyal to the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader ⁠since being established after the 1979 Islamic ⁠Revolution.

It has grown into a powerful force within the country’s theocracy, answering only to its supreme leader and overseeing its ballistic missile arsenal and launching attacks overseas.

The force has been in the spotlight during the US-Israel-Iran war and Tehran’s attacks across the Middle East. Also, in Iran, one of the main ways theocracy squashed demonstrations is through the Basij, the Guard’s all-volunteer arm.

The Guard rose out of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution as a force meant to protect the country’s Shiite cleric-overseen government and later became enshrined in its constitution. It operated parallel to Iran’s regular armed forces, growing in prominence and power during a long and ruinous war with Iraq in the 1980s.

Though it faced possible disbandment after the war, Khamenei granted it powers to expand into private enterprise, allowing the force to thrive.

The Guard runs a massive construction company called Khatam al-Anbia and has firms that also build roads, man ports, run telecommunication networks and even offer laser eye surgery.

The Guard also operates its own intelligence services and has been behind a series of arrests and convictions of dual nationals and those with Western ties on espionage charges in closed hearings.