Following Australian Proscription, Time To Tighten the Terrorism Sanctions Noose on the IRGC

It was a decision years in the making. Canberra will now proscribe the entirety of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.

On August 25, Australian Foreign Secretary Penny Wong announced that the Islamic Republic of Iran had “crossed a line” and that Canberra was responding. In addition to the designation, Australia is taking extraordinary diplomatic action by expelling Tehran’s ambassador and withdrawing its diplomatic representatives from Iran.

The moves come in response to a determination by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) that Iran was behind two antisemitic arson attacks in 2024. The IRGC’s involvement in transnational terror attacks is well documented, as is the regime’s capability and intent to strike at so-called “soft targets” like Jewish community centers and Iranian dissidents abroad.

The IRGC is already sanctioned as a terrorist organization in the United States and Canada. Australia’s decision to sanction the IRGC raises hopes that other Western governments with counterterrorism sanctions authorities, such as Five Eyes intelligence partners the United Kingdom and New Zealand, as well as the European Union, could do the same.

Iran Continues To Operate Through Cut-Outs and Transnational Criminal Networks

In an annual threat assessment issued earlier this year, ASIO warned, “We are not immune to hostile nation states, such as Iran, undertaking acts of security concern on our shores or near region.” Australian authorities have already arrested individuals tied to the two Iran-directed acts of arson on Australian soil. Reportedly, no Iranian diplomats were involved, and the arrested persons were not of Iranian origin.

In comments to the press, ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess declared that these acts were “directed by the IRGC through a series of overseas cut-out facilitators to coordinators that found their way to tasking Australians.” For years, the Islamic Republic has worked through a loose constellation of lone-wolf radicals, proxy militias, and, increasingly, transnational criminal syndicates to mask its hand in foreign operations across five continents.

These have included attempted terror as well as kidnapping operations. In the United States, for example, Iran has attempted to work through Mexican drug cartels, Eastern European criminal networks, and even a Canadian biker gang to achieve its terrorist aims.

The Islamic Republic Seeks To Inflame Local Tensions Wherever It Has Adversaries

According to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the Iran-backed attacks represented “attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community.” Australia is no stranger to acts of antisemitism and violence against Jews since the Iran-backed October 7 terrorist atrocities by Hamas against Israel. But it has also been home to mass protests ostensibly in support of the Palestinian cause but also featuring Iranian flags and images of IRGC military commanders. One recent protest near the famed Sydney Harbour Bridge even featured a picture of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

That the Islamic Republic would inject itself into an adversary’s domestic or local issues to fan political tensions is not new. In 2024, amid widening pro-Palestinian protests in the United States, then Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines noted that America had “observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters.” In 2020, Iran attempted to intimidate American voters by posing online as far-right groups and, per the Department of Justice, “sow[ing] discord in U.S. society.”

Sanctioning the IRGC To Bolster Domestic Security

Following Canberra’s decision to proscribe the IRGC, leaders in London, Wellington, and Brussels should not wait for Iran-backed terror courtesy of the IRGC to reach their shores before acting. In addition to the political benefits of bringing these capitals closer to Washington and enhancing coordination against a persistent threat, sanctioning the IRGC as a terror organization would further empower each jurisdiction’s law enforcement and judicial apparatus to move against material support for the IRGC that facilitates anything from operations to recruitment.

Put simply, any actions by America’s allies to broaden the scope of their terrorism sanctions against an entity that Washington has designated and that retains the capability and intent to engage in terrorism abroad are, first and foremost, a step to defend their security and sovereignty.

Behnam Ben Taleblu is the senior director of the Iran Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he is also a senior fellow. For more analysis from the author and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Behnam on X @therealBehnamBT. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_Iran. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.