Iran\u2019s overnight warning to the US of \u201ceverlasting consequences\u201d after renewed military action suggests a prolonged campaign, likely to rely on covert networks already seen in the UK and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
As the conflict with Iran widens, there are growing concerns the US and Israel may be fuelling the very threat they intended to contain.<\/p>\n
Tehran appears geared for sustained confrontation, not short-term retaliation, raising doubts about whether continued military pressure will deter the threat at all \u2014 or simply broaden it.<\/p>\n
Some analysts argue the opposite may already be happening. Confrontation can strengthen the IRGC, reinforcing its narrative as the defender of the Islamic system, consolidating support at home and justifying a wider use of its networks abroad.<\/p>\n
That reflects the nature of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) itself \u2014 a force shaped as much by ideology as by military strategy.<\/p>\n
The threat at home \u2014 and a growing political debate<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s security services have tracked more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-linked plots over a 12-month period, many targeting dissidents and critics of Tehran living in the UK.<\/p>\n
Britain has not formally banned the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, despite repeated cross-party calls \u2014 and the case for doing so is strengthening.<\/p>\n
Concern about Iran-linked activity on UK soil is feeding into a live debate in Westminster. <\/p>\n
The US has gone further<\/a>, designating the IRGC as a terrorist organisation and applying sweeping sanctions to isolate it.<\/p>\n The UK has so far resisted taking the same step, citing legal complexity, diplomatic considerations and the risk to British nationals detained in Iran.<\/p>\n The UK response \u2014 and what many may have missed<\/p>\n The UK has taken steps to respond, though many of the measures taken are not widely known.<\/p>\n The Government has placed Iran on the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme<\/a>, requiring those acting for the regime to declare links or face prosecution.<\/p>\n Sanctions have been imposed. Plots disrupted. But Parliament\u2019s intelligence watchdog warns the overall approach has been shaped by \u201ccrisis management\u201d<\/a> rather than long-term strategy. <\/p>\n These plots are not just the work of a hostile state. They are the outward edge of a system built to defend and project a religious revolution.<\/p>\n That helps explain why the threat from Iran is proving so persistent and difficult to contain, even as the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran continues to escalate.<\/p>\n At the core of these networks is the IRGC.<\/p>\n The IRGC \u2013 not a conventional military<\/p>\n The IRGC was created in 1979 to enforce Ayatollah Khomeini\u2019s vision of an Islamic state based on rule by a supreme religious leader<\/a>. Rooted in a particular interpretation of Shia Islam, its doctrine treats political power as a religious duty to defend and advance the Islamic system.<\/p>\n It was never designed to function like a normal army. It exists to protect that system and extend its influence. Answering directly to the Supreme Leader, it fuses religion, politics and force into a single structure<\/a>. <\/p>\n The IRGC is no longer just a military force. It has become embedded across the Iranian state, shaping security, politics and the machinery of government itself.<\/p>\n Rather than replacing the clerical leadership, it has fused with it, turning ideological authority into an instrument of state power.<\/p>\n The issue is not the faith itself, but how it has been reshaped \u2014 with religious doctrine transformed into a tool of state power, often at odds with the principles of compassion it claims to uphold.<\/p>\n Why it represses \u2014 and why it operates abroad<\/p>\n Inside Iran, the IRGC has been central to violent crackdowns on protests, treating dissent as a threat to a system seen as divinely ordained<\/a>. <\/p>\n Outside Iran, the same logic applies.<\/p>\n