Three-fourths of UK Labour voters support proscribing Iran’s IRGC - Telegraph
Members of the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) march during a parade to commemorate the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), in Tehran September 22, 2011.
Nearly 75 percent of Britain’s Labour voters back designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group, a poll cited by the Telegraph shows, increasing pressures on the prime minister to fulfill his party’s pre-election pledge.
The survey of more than 1,500 adults by pollster JL Partners found that 75% of Labour voters and 65% of the wider public back a ban on the IRGC, while only 5% of Labour voters opposed it, the Telegraph reported on Sunday.
Three-quarters of Labour supporters said the group posed a threat to Britain’s national security.
The findings follow MI5 disclosures that security services and police have foiled at least 20 Iran-linked assassination and kidnap plots in Britain over the past two years.
“The British public are rightly under no illusions about the nature of the Iranian regime. It is clearer than ever that the IRGC poses a threat to the safety and security of everyone in Britain,” the Telegraph quoted Labour MP Jon Pearce as saying.
Senior Conservative figures also urged the government to act. Lord Arbuthnot, a former chair of parliament’s defense select committee, was quoted as saying: “With MI5 telling us they have foiled at least 20 state-sponsored attacks by Iran in the UK, what on earth is holding the Government back from proscribing the IRGC?”
The IRGC, a branch of Iran’s armed forces, is already under British financial sanctions, but critics argue those measures are insufficient.
The poll showed that 51% of the public believe sanctions have failed to curb the group’s activities, and 46% doubt authorities are doing enough to counter IRGC-linked operations in the UK.
As an alternative to proscription, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has backed proposals for new legislation to give ministers powers to blacklist state agencies such as the IRGC, the newspaper said.
The poll was commissioned by the Iranian Front for the Revival of Law and National Sovereignty, founded by Vahid Beheshti, a political activist and journalist who has staged a protest for more than 900 days outside the Foreign Office.
The debate in Britain comes as other Western allies have already taken action. The United States designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization in 2019, while Canada added the group to its terrorist list in 2023.
Israel says it launched airstrikes against the positions of Yemen's Houthis in Sanaa on Sunday, shortly after the group fired a ballistic missile allegedly armed with a cluster bomb warhead at Israel.
The Israeli military said the strikes hit “military infrastructure of the Houthi terrorist regime” in the Sanaa area, including a military site housing the presidential palace, the Hizaz and Asar power plants, and a fuel storage facility.
Israeli media reported that 10 Air Force jets took part in the strikes in Sanaa, dropping about 35 munitions.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli media reported that an investigation by the Israeli military found that Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militant group used a ballistic missile armed with a cluster bomb warhead in its attack on Israel on Friday.
One of the munitions from the strike hit the yard of a house in the central Israeli town of Ginaton, causing minor damage.
The reports said that while an investigation is under way by the Israeli military into the failure to intercept the missile, the probe is not related to the type of warhead it carried.
Reuters reported citing an Israeli Air Force official as saying on Sunday that the missile most likely carried several sub-munitions “intended to be detonated upon impact.”
“This is the first time this type of missile has been launched from Yemen,” the official was quoted as saying.
A day earlier, Ynet wrote that Israeli Air Force is probing why defenses failed to stop Houthi missile that struck near Tel Aviv, and whether it carried cluster munitions like those Iran used in June war.
Such payloads complicate interception and increase the risk of civilian harm.
Five interceptor systems, including THAAD, Arrow, David’s Sling and Iron Dome, engaged the projectile, which initial reviews suggest fragmented in mid-air, Ynet quoted authorities as saying.
Familiar Iranian design
One of the best-known weapons of this type is the Iranian Khorramshahr-4, unveiled in May 2023, with the capacity to scatter dozens of small warheads resembling Grad rockets. Tehran says it can carry a payload of up to two tons over a range of 2,000 kilometers.
During the June war, Iran launched missiles fitted with submunitions designed to disperse small explosives over urban areas to maximize civilian harm.
Most were intercepted, but in May another missile came close to Ben Gurion’s perimeter. The military said its probe would examine how to adapt defenses against cluster-type payloads, which pose a growing challenge as Iran’s allies escalate attacks.
Israel is threatening Muslim nations, Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday in an op-ed on a pan-Arab daily newspaper, urging Islamic countries to impose sanctions and form an international coalition against Iran's archenemy.
Abbas Araghchi accused Israel of pursuing expansionist policies in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria, in his opinion piece published Sunday by the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat.
The Iranian official urged international bodies to prosecute Israeli leaders and said the upcoming extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah must go “beyond issuing statements and words of condemnation.”
At Iran's request, an extraordinary OIC meeting will be held in Saudi Arabia on Monday to discuss the situation in Gaza. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will chair the meeting, according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
“The illusion of Greater Israel is an existential danger and a threat to international peace and security,” Araghchi wrote.
Araghchi also warned OIC states against reliance on initiatives like the Abraham Accords.
“Any doubt, weakness, or illusion based on trust in deceptive promises such as the Abraham Accords will lead to great harm for the Islamic nation,” he wrote.
US President Donald Trump on August 8 said Iran’s nuclear arsenal had been “totally obliterated” and called on Middle Eastern nations to join the Abraham Accords, framing the strikes as a pathway to regional peace.
“Now that the nuclear arsenal being ‘created’ by Iran has been totally OBLITERATED, it is very important to me that all Middle Eastern Countries join the Abraham Accords,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “This will ensure PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST.”
A representative of Iran's Supreme Leader has urged restrictions on Western shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, saying such a move would drive global oil prices to $200 and deal an economic blow to Iran's adversaries.
“We can impose restrictions against the United States, France, Britain and Germany in the Strait of Hormuz and not allow them to navigate,” Hossein Shariatmadari, the representative of Ali Khamenei in the hardline Kayhan newspaper told state broadcaster.
“Just by announcing such a restriction, the oil price will surge to $200, and the biggest economic blow will be dealt to the enemy.”
This is not the first time Shariatmadari has raised the prospect of using Hormuz as leverage. Last year, after European sanctions on Iranian airlines, he urged the closure of the waterway to tankers and cargo ships from “hostile countries.”
Iranian naval vessels patrol the Persian Gulf during a military exercise
At the time, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran had not issued such a threat despite acknowledging it had the capacity to do so.
Closing the strait would be disastrous for Iran itself, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned in June.
“If they do that, it will be another terrible mistake. It’s economic suicide for them,” he said, urging China to pressure Tehran against such a move.
Any Iranian closure of Hormuz would be “extremely dangerous,” European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in June, while UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy described it as “a monumental act of self-harm, making a diplomatic solution even harder.”
Global artery under strain
The Strait of Hormuz carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil exports. Iran has never attempted a full closure, but it has disrupted shipping through repeated seizures of commercial vessels.
“Europe and the United States would get miserable” if Tehran restricted oil flows, the Revolutionary Guards–linked Javan newspaper wrote in July, citing a shipping industry figure.
“Even countries with no link to the Iran-Israel war will suffer losses.”
The paper added that greater instability in the Middle East would drive up shipping and insurance costs globally.
Iran’s military loaded naval mines onto vessels in the Persian Gulf after Israeli strikes in June, though the mines were not deployed, according to Reuters.
US officials said the move indicated Tehran was weighing a serious escalation that could cripple global commerce.
Iran’s parliament approved a measure to close the strait in June following US airstrikes, state media reported, though the measure was not binding.
Israel is buying two more aerial refueling aircraft to boost its long-range strike capability against Iran, Israeli outlet Ynet reported, as the Revolutionary Guards’ chief warned Saturday of harsher retaliation in any renewed conflict.
Israel ordered two more Boeing KC-46 refueling aircraft as part of a $500-million deal with Boeing to expand its future fleet to six, the report said.
"The move aims to enable sustained air operations deep into Iran and shorten future combat rounds against Tehran,” according to the Ynet report.
The KC-46s will replace Israel’s current refueling fleet which were used in operations against Houthi rebels in Yemen and during the 12-day war with Iran in June.
During the 12-day war, the Israeli air force achieved air superiority over Iran, according to Israeli broadcaster Channel 12.
Israel launched a surprise military campaign on June 13 targeting Iran's military and nuclear sites, killing 1,062 people including 276 civilians.
Iran responded with missile strikes that killed 31 civilians and one off-duty soldier, according to official figures published by the Israeli government.
Despite a US-brokered ceasefire in late June, Iran and Israel’s armed forces have been preparing for a possible resumption of conflict, with military leaders on both sides vowing readiness for further strikes.
Iran vows crushing response
In Tehran, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander-in-chief Mohammad Pakpour warned of harsher strikes on Israel if the war resumes.
“If aggression is repeated, Israel will face a crushing response that will make it regret it,” he said.
Earlier this week, the Islamic Republic's top security official Ali Larijani said Tehran must remain prepared for a fresh round of conflict as the war with Israel is not over.
The Islamic Republic needs to "create capacities so that the enemy will not be tempted to take action again," Larijani said in an interview with the Supreme Leader's official website, published on Friday.
"Right now, since we are engaged in a war currently paused by a ceasefire, this is therefore an important matter that we must pay attention to."
Iran has overhauled its visa rules starting this month, requiring foreign tourists to enter only through organized tours booked with registered agencies, the Travel and Tour World website reported Saturday.
"This change effectively bans independent travel, requiring tourists to submit additional documentation, including a detailed resume, tour operator contract, and confirmed hotel bookings," the online magazine said.
Under the new rules cited by the outlet, tourists are also required to travel with licensed guides for their entire stay. Payments are only made once the visa is approved, and applications take two to three weeks to process.
Iran’s foreign and tourism ministries have not confirmed the report or announced any changes to the country’s visa regulations.
Though framed as a means to ensure structured and secure tourism, these newly reported regulations are being introduced just a couple of months after Iran arrested thousands including foreign visitors following the 12-day conflict with Israel in June.
The Islamic Republic has a longstanding record of detaining visiting academics, dual nationals, and other foreigners—often accused of espionage in cases widely perceived abroad as political leverage or hostage diplomacy.
In June, a European national was arrested in northwestern Iran for allegedly attempting to spy on sensitive areas. In another case, two foreign nationals were detained in Karaj, west of Tehran, for allegedly working as Mossad agents.
The rising number of detentions triggered concern across Europe and the United States. A US State Department cable cited unconfirmed reports of Americans being detained and noted that many US nationals faced delays and harassment while trying to leave Iran.
“This measure is intended to give authorities a deeper understanding of the applicant’s background and to evaluate any potential security risks,” the report by the Travel and Tour World website said.
According to the report, Iranian authorities now require applicants to provide a signed contract with an officially registered tour operator. This contract must include a detailed itinerary specifying travel dates, routes, and destinations, as well as confirmed hotel reservations arranged directly through the tour agency.
Independent accommodation—such as staying with private individuals or using platforms like Couchsurfing—will also be strictly prohibited, the report said.
If true, the new visa regulations would make it more difficult for foreign travelers to visit Iran on their own.
The country, historically known for its rich cultural and historical heritage as well as its natural beauty, has struggled to attract foreign tourists in recent years. Despite its allure, the country faced challenges such as strict dress codes for women and restrictions on alcohol and nightlife.