Hossein Abedini: Britain's Decision Confirms the IRGC Is the Core Institution Behind Tehran's Terror Network

Hossein Abedini, Deputy Representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in the United Kingdom, said the British government's decision to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization marks a major political and legal turning point. He described it as a long-overdue recognition of what the Iranian Resistance has warned for decades: that the IRGC is not a conventional military force but the central pillar of domestic repression and the export of terrorism.

Abedini stated that the designation follows years of mounting evidence linking the IRGC to espionage networks, assassination plots, intimidation of dissidents, and threats against Iranian communities across Europe, in addition to its direct role in organizing, financing, and commanding proxy militias throughout the Middle East.

He noted that the Iranian Resistance has consistently exposed the IRGC as an institution created not to defend Iran's national interests but to preserve the clerical regime, suppress the Iranian people, and expand Tehran's regional influence through the Quds Force and its proxy network. Recent developments, he said, have only reinforced that assessment as the IRGC has remained at the center of proxy wars, missile and nuclear activities, cyber operations, and transnational terrorism.

According to Abedini, the British decision also provides stronger legal mechanisms to pursue the IRGC's financial, commercial, and organizational networks, making membership, support, promotion, or public display of its symbols subject to criminal prosecution. He added that this could become an important precedent for other European governments considering similar measures.

He stressed that designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization should represent the beginning of a broader international strategy rather than an isolated step. Such a strategy, he argued, should include dismantling the Guard Corps' financial empire, shutting down its front companies, expelling its operatives and proxies from regional countries, and holding its commanders accountable for crimes committed against the Iranian people and the peoples of the Middle East.

Abedini concluded that Britain's decision is a significant victory for a reality the Iranian Resistance has defended for many years. However, he emphasized that eliminating the threat posed by the IRGC ultimately requires supporting the Iranian people's struggle and the National Council of Resistance of Iran to establish a democratic republic that separates religion from the state, respects the sovereignty of neighboring countries, and permanently rejects terrorism, proxy militias, and regional interference.