UK says an Iran-backed group was behind attacks on Jewish community and bans Revolutionary Guard
LONDON (AP) — A series of arson and vandalism attacks on Jewish sites in Britain were the work of a proxy group backed by Iran, the U.K. government said Monday.
The government said it is banning the group behind the attacks, the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, or IMCR, also known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia.
It also banned Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which it said is a threat to national security. The move makes it illegal to support the groups. Committing sabotage on their behalf will be punishable by up to life imprisonment.
Parliament must approve the bans, which the government expects to take place by the end of the week.
Security Minister Angela Eagle said in a statement that the IMCR has claimed seven attacks in the U.K. The group had said online that it was responsible for a string of arson attacks on Jewish sites in London in recent months, including fires at synagogues and Jewish charity ambulances, as well as a Persian-language media organization critical of Iran’s government. No one was injured in the blazes.
“Sitting behind IMCR were members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, who almost certainly directed IMCR attacks across Europe,” she said. The Quds, or Jerusalem, Force is the Guard’s expeditionary unit.
Britain also imposed sanctions on the IMCR that will allow authorities to freeze any assets it has in the U.K.
The IMCR sprang up online earlier this year and has also claimed responsibility for synagogue attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Law enforcement officials and intelligence experts say Iran-backed proxy groups are behind a growing number of attacks in Europe, most targeting the Jewish community and opponents of Iran’s Islamic government.
They typically work by recruiting members of criminal groups to carry out sabotage and other attacks.
Earlier this month, two Romanian men were given prison sentences over the stabbing of a journalist from a Persian-language television station, an attack the judge said was carried out on behalf of the Iranian state.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Monday she had summoned the Iranian ambassador to “condemn Iran's malign behavior” and stress Britain's commitment to protecting the Jewish community.
Authorities said Monday that Britain is also designating the GRU Volunteer Corps, a group controlled by Russia’s military intelligence agency, as a national security threat. The U.K. says the group conducts foreign intelligence collection and hostile covert operations on behalf of the GRU.
Authorities said the new measures will make it easier for police and intelligence agencies to tackle what they call “thugs for hire," or anyone supporting the proxy groups.
“We have already taken tough action against the Iranian regime and those linked to it, and against Russian operatives and networks targeting our country. These new powers will make it easier to prosecute and lock up anyone carrying out their dirty work here in Britain," Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from Iran. Tehran long has denied orchestrating attacks abroad, despite such cases stretching over the decades since the 1979 revolution.
The U.K. banning the Revolutionary Guard came after it has been declared a terror group by the United States and the European Union.
Britain has resisted following suit, though it has sanctioned people it says are members and supporters of the Guard.
The bans announced Monday are not under counterterror legislation, but under a new law giving the government powers to tackle proxy organizations carrying out hostile activity on behalf of foreign states.
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