Britain adds 2 to Iran sanctions, links Revolutionary Guards to Fairford incident
Key Facts
Britain added 2 individuals to its Iran sanctions regime on 12 October 2026, as Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced a government assessment linking Iran's Revolutionary Guards to the incident at Fairford air base. Burnham told the House of Commons it was "highly likely" the incident had been coordinated in Iran and "almost certain" it had been directed by the Revolutionary Guards. The British assessment concerns the incident on 27 September, according to the date given in the international statement published by Britain's Foreign Office. U.S. forces use and operate from Britain's Fairford base, placing the security of shared bases among the measures addressed in the British announcement. Burnham said his government had been in close contact with the United States over security measures at those bases. Iran, meanwhile, denied involvement in any plot and described the accusations against it as "baseless", according to Reuters.
Giving details of the investigation into the suspected plot to target Fairford, police said they had found no explosive devices during their inquiries, Reuters reported. They did, however, announce the recovery of a quantity of petrol during vehicle searches, describing the results of searches linked to the case. On the judicial front, all suspects had been released on bail when the Associated Press published its report on the incident. The agency added that none had been charged at that point. For the government, the home secretary said her assessment was that a known individual based in Iran had likely coordinated the incident. She attributed the coordinating role to that individual while presenting the government's assessment to parliament of who was behind the incident.
Those targeted by sanctions included Ruhollah Bazghandi, whom Britain's Foreign Office described as the head of counterintelligence operations within Iran's Revolutionary Guards. The sanctions notice also named Shahram Ali Reza Tamrzadeh Jaki, whose activities the ministry linked to a criminal network and plots targeting Iranian dissidents. The Foreign Office described him as a facilitator for the Zindashti criminal network who was involved in several plots against those dissidents, in its public statement on the measures against Iran. The ministry said the new sanctions included an immediate asset freeze, placing the targets' property under the financial restrictions announced by London. The measures also include travel bans and bans on company directorships, alongside the asset freeze in the British announcement. On the diplomatic front, the home secretary announced that the foreign secretary had summoned the Iranian ambassador, adding that step to Britain's response to the incident.
In the international response, the statement published by Britain's Foreign Office linked the Fairford incident to the Revolutionary Guards' use of covert networks and proxies to conduct hostile activities abroad. The statement described those activities as being carried out "through covert networks and proxies", in its accusation concerning how the Guards operate outside Iran. It placed the incident in the context of a campaign of attacks in Europe whose targets included Jewish communities, Iranian journalists and U.S. interests. It listed Jewish communities among the groups targeted in the campaign it condemned, alongside Iranian journalists, whom it explicitly identified as a targeted group. Its description of the campaign also included U.S. interests, alongside its discussion of the incident at the British base used by U.S. forces. The signatories pledged to take action to identify, investigate and disrupt hostile activities carried out on behalf of Iran or any other state, and to prosecute those responsible.
Regarding the U.S. military presence at Fairford, a U.S. Defense Department official confirmed that all U.S. bombers deployed there had returned to their home bases in the United States, according to Reuters. The official's confirmation covered all bombers deployed at the British base, specifying their destination as their home bases on U.S. soil. On British security measures, the home secretary announced tighter security around military bases as part of her account of the government's response to state threats. She said the government was also building a specialist mission within counterterrorism policing to disrupt those threats. The home secretary linked the specialist mission's work to countering state threats, alongside security protection for military sites. The steps she announced thus include measures around the bases themselves and specialist work within the police service responsible for counterterrorism.
On next steps, Burnham pledged in his statement dated 12 October 2026 to impose further sanctions on Iran and the Revolutionary Guards. "We will impose further sanctions," he told the House of Commons, setting out the course he said his government would follow after the new measures. The prime minister linked that pledge to restricting the ability of Iran and the Revolutionary Guards to harm Britain.