UK summons Iran's ambassador and sanctions two Iranian nationals, one described by the UK as an IRGC counterespionage chief

12 October 2026

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said on 12 October that Iran's ambassador had been summoned, with Minister for the Middle East Stephen Doughty conducting the summons. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said: "Britain will not tolerate threats on our soil." The UK designated two Iranian nationals under the 2023 Iran Sanctions Regulations: Ruhollah Bazghandi, whom the Foreign Office describes as Head of Counterespionage Operations within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Shahram Ali Reza Tamarzadeh Jakki, whom it describes as a facilitator of the Zindashti criminal network. Both face an asset freeze, a travel ban and director disqualification. The Foreign Office said more than 550 Iranian individuals and entities have been sanctioned. In a statement to the House of Commons the same day, the UK Prime Minister said the government's assessment is that the RAF Fairford incident is "highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran, almost certainly directed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard". Iran's Foreign Ministry has called the UK's claims a "clumsy false flag operation", according to Al Jazeera.