Politics
Government hits Iran-backed criminal network with fresh sanctions
The foreign secretary said that UK ‘will not tolerate’ threats from from the Islamic Republic
April 15, 2025 10:39
The foreign secretary said that UK ‘will not tolerate’ threats from from the Islamic Republic
April 15, 2025 10:39The government has announced a fresh wave of sanctions against an Iranian-backed criminal network and its leader.
The Swedish-based Foxtrot Network and their leader Rawa Majid are accused of being involved in attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets in Europe.
The JC understands that Majid was personally handed a UK travel ban, a freeze on his assets and directorship disqualification. The latter two measures have also been applied against the Network in general after similar terms were introduced by the US last month.
The 38-year-old Swedish national is also subject to a red notice by Interpol – a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person – and faces charges including aiding attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and narcotics offences.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary said: “The Iranian regime uses criminal gangs across the world to threaten people. The UK has targeted this criminal network and its leader, Rawa Majid, due to their involvement in violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe on behalf of the Iranian regime. The UK will not tolerate these threats.
“This forms part of the UK Government’s ongoing response to Iranian hostilities in Europe. Last month, we announced that Iran will be placed on the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (Firs) and to date, the UK has sanctioned more than 450 Iranian individuals and entities, in response to the regime’s human rights violations, nuclear weapons programme and malign influence internationally.
Under the scheme, anybody who – directly or indirectly – works for Iran will have to register their presence in the UK or they could face a custodial sentence.
Lammy went on to say that the government would “continue to hold the Iranian regime and criminals acting on its behalf to account”.
Since the start of 2022, the UK has responded to more than 20 Iran-backed plots, including some which presented lethal danger to British citizens and UK residents.
Last month, in an exclusive interview with the JC, the former head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove warned that Iran represents a “threat” to British Jews.
The former spymaster also expressed bafflement with the failure of successive governments to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.
“I just don't get why we haven't done so. It is the agency through which Iran has conducted what I would call ‘arm’s length warfare’. The Quds Force is part of the IRGC, and they've made an absolute fundamental aspect of Iranian policy using this agency to destabilise and interfere in the affairs of other countries.”
He added: “I know the Foreign Office arguments for not banning the IRGC, but it should have been identified as a terrorist organisation a long time ago.”
In opposition, Labour had pledged to proscribe the group, with Lammy telling Parliament in 2023: “We would proscribe the IRGC, either by using existing terrorism legislation or by creating a new process of proscription for hostile state actors.”
However, ministers are yet to put forward legislation to proscribe the group following their election win last July.