The government has come under pressure to devise a new, tougher strategy to deal with threats from Iran.

Iran is “fundamentally committed to creating a new Middle Eastern status quo where it is the region’s dominant power", according to a report from Policy Exchange, a think tank.

The UK must stop treating Tehran’s nuclear ambitions as a single and separate issue to wider security concerns, and urgently needs to step up efforts to prevent assassinations on British soil, the report warns.

“The Iran threat is not simply the nuclear issue, but a combination of Iranian military capabilities, proxy groups, intelligence and influence tools in the UK and elsewhere, and the nuclear programme,” the report states.

"Nuclear developments, while an important part of the package, must be situated within a more comprehensive understanding of the wider threat posed by Iran.

"Iran policy, meanwhile, must begin with the strategic threat that Iran poses, not the single, symptomatic element that is its nuclear programme.”

ali-khamanei

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Photo: Channel 1 via Memri)

The report urges the government to do more to counter both open and covert Iranian operations within Britain to "prevent assassinations and kidnappings in the UK.”

Ministers can achieve this by “tasking the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre and National Crime Agency’s intelligence capabilities, along with MI5 and MI6 to hire more Persian analysts and better fuse MI5, MI6, and NCA capabilities".

Government ministers are also urged to deepen security and intelligence relationships with the "key powers that surround Iran" including Israel, the UAE and Jordan.

Significantly, the report recommends the government triggers a “snapback” of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, reimposing sanctions on Iran, which would “isolate” the country and and “ensure international support for an anti-Iranian coalition”.

Other recommendations include a crackdown on illicit Iranian finances by boosting UK financial intelligence units and pushing financial regulators to take allegations of suspected cash flows from Tehran seriously.

A cross party coalition of senior political figures also urged Foreign Secretary James Cleverly to take bolder action against Iran in a letter published today. 

James Cleverly

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has so far declined to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (Photo: Henry Nicholls - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

The letter was signed by Michael Fallon and George Robertson, who both served as defence secretaries, former Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell and Alicia Kearns, chairwoman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

General David Richards, former chief of defence staff and Mark Sedwill, former national security adviser and former cabinet secretary were also among the signatories. 

In the letter, they argue Iran is “becoming more brazen in its prosecution of international disruption".

They add: “Iran’s increasingly appalling human rights record, accelerating nuclear programme, sponsorship of proxies throughout the Middle East, extensive assistance to Russia in its brutal war on Ukraine, and sponsorship of terrorism and kidnapping makes it an obvious threat to international stability.”

The group points out that counter terrorism forces uncovered 15 Iranian plots on UK soil in the past 18 months.

It concludes: “Now more than ever, as we witness the growing alignment between Iran and Russia, it is imperative for the government to seriously consider the insights and recommendations put forth in this paper. 

“It is our sincere hope that the insights and proposals put forth in this paper will inform and guide the United Kingdom’s policy decisions toward Iran, enabling us to confront the complex challenges ahead and secure a safer and more prosperous future for our nation and the Middle East as a whole.”

A Government spokesman said: “The regime in Tehran is threatening UK security, oppressing the Iranian people and exporting bloodshed to Ukraine and the Middle East. We are committed to holding them to account and work closely with law enforcement and international partners to identify, deter and respond to threats from Iran.

"The Foreign Secretary has recently announced plans for a new sanctions regime, giving us greater powers to target Iranian decision makers, and we continue to exploit every diplomatic avenue to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.”