Iran cleric says country's hijab situation is 'unacceptable'

The IRGC was designated alongside the Iran-linked Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right and Russia’s GRU Volunteer Corps, the first organizations placed under powers created by the National Security (State Threats) Act 2026.

The designations took effect on July 17 after Parliament approved an order submitted by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood four days earlier.

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  UK says support for Iran's IRGC outlawed under new state threats law

Under the new law, it is now a criminal offence to express support for the groups, including by glorifying or encouraging activity that threatens the safety of the United Kingdom.

Providing assistance or accepting money or another material benefit from a designated organization can also lead to prosecution. Those convicted could face prison sentences of up to 14 years.

People who commit sabotage, arson or other hostile acts on behalf of the groups could be charged separately under the National Security Act 2023 and face life imprisonment.

The designation is distinct from banning an organization under Britain’s terrorism legislation. It is designed specifically to address hostile activity linked to foreign governments, including espionage, political interference, intimidation, sabotage and physical attacks.

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  Wave of Iran plots drove UK action against IRGC, terror law tsar says

The government says the new framework will make it easier to prosecute people working for foreign organizations because prosecutors will not always have to establish a direct connection between an individual act and a foreign government.

Outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer said when the measures were announced that Britain would not be allowed to become “a playground for states who want to spread fear, division and violence on our streets.”

“We have already taken tough action against the Iranian regime and those linked to it, and against Russian operatives and networks targeting our country,” he said. “These new powers will make it easier to prosecute and lock up anyone carrying out their dirty work here in Britain.”

The IRGC is one of the Islamic Republic’s most powerful military and political institutions. Its overseas Quds Force oversees Tehran’s relationships with allied armed groups and has been accused by British authorities of directing operations against dissidents, journalists and Jewish or Israeli-linked targets in Europe.

The British government said the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right had claimed responsibility for seven attacks this year against Persian-language media and locations linked to Jewish and Israeli communities in Britain.

Those incidents included an antisemitic arson attack that damaged four ambulances belonging to the Jewish emergency service Hatzola in Golders Green, north London, on March 23.

British authorities said Quds Force members were behind the organization and had “almost certainly” directed its attacks across Europe. The allegations have not been tested in court.

The government has also cited at least 20 potentially lethal Iranian-backed plots identified by the domestic intelligence agency MI5 over a one-year period.

“Iran and Russia are using proxies and thugs to do their dirty work on our shores,” Mahmood said when she announced the intended designations. “We will find you, and we will lock you up.”

The third designated organization, the GRU Volunteer Corps, is described by Britain as a network controlled by Russian military intelligence that recruits people online to carry out arson, sabotage, harassment and other hostile activity.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the use of proxies by Iran and Russia to conduct operations on British soil was “reprehensible.”

The designation marks a significant escalation in Britain’s response to the IRGC. Rather than banning the organization as a terrorist group, the government has created a separate route to prosecute support, recruitment, financing and operational assistance linked to hostile foreign-state activity.

“All visa applicants, regardless of nationality, must meet the eligibility requirements set out in Australia’s migration legislation before a visa can be granted,” a Department of Home Affairs spokesperson told Iran International on Friday.

The processing times, the spokesperson said, depend on factors including application complexity, completeness, demand, ministerial priorities and migration planning levels.

“Processing times can also be affected by application processing requirements, including verification of applicant information ... and the time taken to receive clearances from external agencies, particularly for health, character and national security assessments,” the spokesperson said.

The department did not directly address the question on whether Iranian citizens undergo broader or different security screening than applicants from other countries.

The response came after images emerged of protests by Iranian applicants outside the Australian embassy in Tehran, alongside letters, official correspondence with the Department of Home Affairs, documents related to pending cases and messages from applicants inside and outside Australia.

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Documents and correspondence show some applications have remained unresolved for more than two years, and in some cases more than 30 months, despite applicants completing key requirements including skills assessments, medical examinations and biometric checks.

Protests and travel restrictions

The department also did not provide a specific explanation for delays affecting Iranian skilled visa applicants who were already inside Australia when they lodged their applications.

Officials said some applicants have faced conflict-related obstacles inside Iran, including internet disruptions that hinder access to biometric appointments, medical examinations and documents such as police certificates and passports. The extensions, the department said, may be granted in such cases but applicants must still satisfy all legal visa requirements.

In recent months, groups of Iranian applicants have staged two protests outside the Australian embassy in Tehran, calling for greater transparency over prolonged processing delays and requesting decisions on their applications.

The department also referred to temporary travel restrictions affecting holders of Australian Visitor visas linked to Iranian passports. It said the Arrival Control Determination, introduced on March 26, 2026, remains in force for six months and prevents affected visa holders outside Australia from entering the country.

Any extension beyond the initial six-month period, according to the department, would require a new legal determination and a finding that continuing the restrictions serves Australia’s national interest. The government has said the measure is intended to provide time to assess conditions in Iran and associated migration risks, leaving the future of both the travel restrictions and many pending visa applications uncert

The developments unfolded along three parallel fronts: Iranian attacks on US facilities across the Persian Gulf, continued US strikes inside Iran and an intensifying contest over control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran said it launched drone attacks on US facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain early Friday, after a sixth consecutive night of American strikes on Iranian military targets.

Iran’s army said it targeted US force deployment and logistics centers in Kuwait, Iran’s IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency reported.

In Bahrain, the army said it struck US helicopters and reconnaissance aircraft at Sakhir Air Base. Sirens sounded in the country for the second time on Friday, according to the Interior Ministry.

In Qatar, several booms were heard after the government sent a second security alert to mobile phones, Reuters reported. The Defense Ministry said Qatar was intercepting several air attacks, while the Interior Ministry said a child was injured by shrapnel from an intercepted missile.

US Central Command has not confirmed the reported attacks in Kuwait or Bahrain.

At the same time, US forces continued striking targets in southern Iran.

CENTCOM said US fighter jets, drones and warships used precision munitions to hit dozens of military targets, including coastal surveillance and air defense sites, logistics infrastructure and maritime capabilities near Bandar Abbas and on Qeshm Island.

Hamshahri, a newspaper owned by Tehran Municipality, reported that five bridges in Hormozgan province were hit in the latest wave of attacks.

The death toll from strikes on bridges in Bandar Khamir rose to seven, Iran’s IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency reported. Iranian media also reported damage to a power substation on Kish Island and attacks on transport infrastructure in Bandar Abbas and Bandar Khamir.

The reports could not be independently verified.

Control over Strait of Hormuz

As the two sides exchanged attacks on land, their confrontation also deepened at sea.

CENTCOM said US forces redirected three commercial vessels attempting to breach the naval blockade against Iran, disabled another that failed to comply with orders and boarded the M/T Wen Yao in the Gulf of Oman to verify compliance.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared an image from the boarding and wrote that Iran “does not control” the Strait of Hormuz.

CENTCOM said the strait and surrounding waters remained free and open, except for vessels attempting to violate what it called the US “steel wall” blockade.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, however, said Tehran remained in full control of the waterway and would prevent oil and gas exports through it for as long as US attacks continued.

Trump cast the military and maritime operations as signs of US momentum.

“You will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly,” he said after declaring that Washington was “winning big in Iran.”

The possibility of a wider regional conflict emerged more clearly on Friday, when the Revolutionary Guards said they had struck a US special operations command center in Syria’s al-Tanf region, destroying a radar system and several helicopters and killing US personnel.

US Central Command has not confirmed the report.

Police said Vahid Aberi, of Liverpool, was charged under Section 3 of the National Security Act 2023 with assisting a foreign intelligence service. They said the foreign state to which the investigation relates is Iran.

Aberi was arrested on Wednesday in the Birmingham area and taken to a West Midlands police station. Officers also carried out searches at addresses in Birmingham and Liverpool.

He was remanded in custody and was due to appear before Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday.

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  UK says support for Iran's IRGC outlawed under new state threats law

Police say no direct threat identified

Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the investigation reflected what she described as a sustained increase in national security casework.

"We have seen a significant and sustained increase in the tempo of our work in national security investigations in recent years," she said in a statement.

She said police had "intervened to disrupt suspected activity linked to foreign intelligence services" but declined to comment further on the allegations because criminal proceedings had begun.

Flanagan added that police had not identified any direct threat to the public, nor any threat to a community or individual, in connection with the investigation.

The charges were authorised by the Crown Prosecution Service.

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  Romanian men get combined 20 years over Iran International journalist attack

Scrutiny of alleged Iran-linked activity

The case comes as Britain has intensified efforts to counter what it says is hostile activity linked to Iran.

Earlier this month, a London court sentenced two Romanian nationals to a combined 20 years in prison for stabbing Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati outside his home in Wimbledon in 2024. The judge accepted the prosecution's case that the attack was carried out on behalf of the Iranian state. Iran has previously rejected accusations that it has been involved in attacks or plots in Britain.

Separately, the British government announced this week that it intends to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards under new state threats legislation. If approved by parliament, supporting or assisting the group under the new legal framework could carry a prison sentence of up to 14 years.

The government has said the designation is separate from proscription under Britain's terrorism laws and is intended to address foreign state-backed activity, including espionage, interference, sabotage and physical attacks.

British authorities have repeatedly said they have disrupted a number of alleged Iran-linked plots in recent years. Iran has previously dismissed British allegations that it has directed hostile activity in the UK.

The billboard, most prominent in Tehran, is controlled by the IRGC-linked Owj Arts and Media Organization and is frequently used to project messages aligned with Iran’s hardline establishment.

Its English slogan reads, "Who is D nexT one?", with the unusual capitalization of the letters "D" and "T" appearing to reference Donald Trump.

State-run IRNA said the billboard was installed following Graham’s death, describing him as one of the most anti-Iran politicians in the United States.

Some conservative voices in Iran portrayed Graham’s death as divine punishment for what they see as his persistent pursuit of war against the country.

The billboard claims no responsibility for the senator’s death, but the wording appears to suggest that those pushing for a downfall of the Islamic Republic could have a similar fate.

Graham died on July 11 after what his office described as a brief and sudden illness. US media reported that emergency personnel had responded to a cardiac arrest call at his Capitol Hill home.

In recent months, Graham had become a prominent supporter of Iran’s opposition movement. At a Munich gathering, he called for a “free Iran” and said he chose “the Iranian people over the murderous ayatollah,” as he waved the country’s pre-Islamic Republic flag.

Exiled prince Reza Pahlavi described Graham as a “steadfast friend of the Iranian people,” saying his support for what he called Iran’s Lion and Sun Revolution had earned him the nickname “Uncle Lindsey” among some Iranians.

At the funeral of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, mourners carried placards showing US President Donald Trump, Graham, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and activist Laura Loomer with red crosshairs over their faces and warnings including: “Sooner or later, your heads will roll.”

Other placards featured Israeli-American billionaire Miriam Adelson, Foundation for Defense of Democracies chief Mark Dubowitz and investor Peter Thiel. Mourners also displayed a $100 million bounty for Trump and chanted calls for his killing.

In a similar message, another Tehran mural depicted Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drowning in a red “sea of revenge,” the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency reported Thursday.

“You will drown in the sea of the Iranian nation’s revenge,” the mural read in Persian and English.

Separately, Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi, a member of Iran’s Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, called for attacks on US leaders and for treaties to be ignored in retaliation for what he described as “ongoing assassinations and expanding sanctions.”

Since the US killing of IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020, through the 12-day Iran-Israel war in 2025 and the latest US and Israeli attacks in 2026 that killed 52 senior Iranian military, security and intelligence officials, the Islamic Republic has repeatedly vowed revenge.

Much of that rhetoric, however, has so far taken the form of billboards, murals, funeral displays and public threats.