Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is recruiting men of Middle Eastern and Eastern European origin living in Britain to become terrorists via online grooming, the Daily Express reported Friday.
A specific branch of the IRGC is using the Internet and social media to create a network of sleeper cells and lone-wolf operatives across the UK, the report said.
“In Britain it’s not quite sleeper cells, it’s more the co-ordination of useful idiots… a lot of people who like the regime in Iran and want to do their dirty work for them,” Andreas Krieg, an associate professor of security studies at King’s College in London, told the London-based newspaper.
“Iran’s strategy generally is a network strategy, a mosaic,” he said. “The most powerful weapon Iran has is not ballistic missiles but this network, not just in Britain but across the world. The biggest threat from Iran is not a nuclear missile, it is on Britain’s streets.”
Britain’s security services monitor the movements of these sleeper cells and agents, the report said. MI5 has responded to 20 Iran-backed terrorist plots since 2022, the counter-intelligence and security agency reported.
Much of the work done by the agents is centered on surveillance and harassment of Iranian dissidents or Israeli nations, Krieg said.
UK government response
On September 4, the UK government published its response to the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament’s (ISC) report on Iran, which was released in July 2025.
The ISC report revealed that Iran has targeted prominent Jewish individuals across the UK, and that there have been at least 15 attempts to kill or abduct people in the UK.
The Iranian threat includes physical attacks and potential assassinations of dissidents and Jewish targets, espionage, offensive cyber capabilities, and its attempt to develop nuclear weapons, the committee said.
In response, the UK government said it deems Iran to be a “core security priority,” and that “addressing these complex challenges remains a strategic focus for the government.”
Iran does not view attacks on dissident, Jewish, and Israeli targets in the UK as attacks on the UK, but rather as collateral in its handling of internal matters on UK soil, the government said. As a result, the government said it “will make it clear to Iran – at every opportunity – that such attacks would indeed constitute an attack on the UK and would receive the appropriate response.”
Regarding Iran’s use of espionage, particularly in the cyber domain, the government said any attempt “by a foreign power to conduct espionage in the UK will not be tolerated,” and that anyone seeking to conduct hostile acts against the UK or steal information for commercial advantage is liable to prosecution for offenses under the National Security Act 2023.”
The response also highlighted the potential threat from pro-Iran cultural and educational centers across the UK, which “have been used to promote violent and extremist ideology.”
“This threat must not be underestimated,” the government said.
The government said it was doing extensive work to investigate and prevent such threats, and it is looking into “vectors of concern, including cultural centers and educational facilities that may have links to the Iranian regime or support their political objectives.”
It cited the introduction of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) in July 2025, which uses a double-pronged approach to counter such threats.
Firstly, it requires registration of any arrangements to carry out political influence activities in the UK on behalf of a foreign power. Secondly, an enhanced tier requires the registration of all arrangements to carry out activities directed by the Iranian state in the UK. Anyone who does not register faces up to five years in prison.
The government said the enhanced tier could be applied to activities directed by foreign powers considered to pose a risk to the UK’s safety or interests.
“The whole of the Iranian state has been placed on the enhanced tier,” it said.
Regarding domestic interference, the government said Iran has an overall negligible effect on UK public opinion. Common techniques used by the regime to cause domestic interference include the suppression of critical voices, the promotion of views that align with its own geopolitical narratives and religious ideology, and state-funded media platforms, it said.
“Whilst the UK is a high priority target for Iranian interference activity due to its role in multilateral negotiations relating to Iran and the presence of several Iranian-language news outlets in the UK, which are critical of the regime, it is not as important as the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, or other Middle Eastern states,” it added.
Regarding the Middle East, the government said there was a possible, though unlikely, chance that the British Embassy in Tehran may be attacked. It warned that “given the volatility of the situation, the potential for misunderstanding and miscalculation by Iran, and the possibility for rapid escalation, it is not unrealistic to think that at some point it could become necessary to evacuate UK nationals in the region.”
The government said it was concerned that Iranian cyber actors had reportedly targeted water facilities in Israel.