UK to toughen stance on Iran foreign influence operations

Britain will put Iran's intelligence and security establishment on the highest tier of a foreign influence watchlist, security minister Dan Jarvis told parliament on Tuesday, toughening London's stance on perceived political interference by Tehran.

The upgrading of Iran to the highest tier of the United Kingdom's Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) due to be rolled out in the summer ratchets up tension between the nuclear-armed security council member state and the Islamic Republic.

Under the designation, Iran and anybody acting on its behalf would be deemed a potential security threat and compelled to register their activities in the UK. Not doing so would potentially incur a five-year prison sentence.

"We will place the whole of the Iranian state, including Iran's intelligence services, the IRGC and MOIS (Ministry of Intelligence), on to the enhanced tier of the new foreign influence registration scheme," Jarvis told parliament.

Jarvis was referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a paramilitary organization at the heart of the Iranian establishment which oversees foreign operations including aid to militant groups Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Pointing to threats from Iran, he mentioned that in December 2023, a Chechnya-born individual was sentenced to three and a half years in jail by a British court for collecting information for terrorist purposes. He had been arrested earlier that year in a Starbucks near Iran International’s premises after being spotted filming the broadcaster’s building in West London.

"The national protective security authority and counter-terrorism police will continue to provide protective security advice and support to individuals and organizations threatened by the Iranian regime and its criminal proxies, including Persian-language media organizations and their employees," Jarvis told the parliament.

The UK and European states have so far stopped short of following the United States in designating the IRGC a terrorist organization.

According to an announcement by UK counter-terrorism police in 2023, UK security forces foiled 15 kidnapping and murder plots against British or UK-based targets deemed Tehran's enemies.

Jarvis said that since 2022, 20 Iranian-backed plots putting the lives of British citizens or UK residents at risk had been foiled, adding that the number of state-level investigations run by MI5 had jumped by 48% in the past year.

"It's clear that these plots are a conscious strategy of the Iranian regime to stifle criticism through intimidation and fear," he noted.

Journalism watchdog Reporters Without Borders said last year that Tehran was carrying out "systematic targeting of journalists reporting on Iran from abroad, in an effort to silence them."

"London, home to major Persian-language broadcasters, has been a hotspot for such attacks because of the large number of Iranian journalists based there," the group added.

The British government last month denied funding an Iranian influence network in Western countries, rejecting remarks by a Swedish-Iranian scholar who said his involvement in the initiative was backed by the UK government.