Mick Hartley

This needed saying. A Times editorial:

The arrest of four Iranians last week over an alleged terror plot, described by Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, as one of the biggest threats Britain had seen in years, underlined the ongoing and extremely dangerous attempts by Iran to kill dissidents living abroad, sponsor terrorist attacks and spread an extremist message of hatred throughout the West. The alleged target of the plot was the Israeli embassy in London. The aim was probably to sabotage any resumption of talks with the United States on limiting Iran’s nuclear weapons research. The mastermind was undoubtedly the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Astonishingly, this malign, powerful and vicious organisation is allowed to operate openly in Britain. It should be banned immediately.

The IRGC was set up 45 years ago to “defend” Iran’s Islamic system and provide a counterweight to the regular armed forces. It has since become the country’s main military, political and economic force. With as many as 190,000 active personnel, its own ground, naval and air forces and oversight of Iran’s strategic weapons, the IRGC operates as a state within a state. It controls the so-called Basij Resistance Force, largely responsible for suppressing, brutally, any domestic dissent. It sponsors terrorism throughout the Middle East and beyond, either by using proxies such Hamas and Hezbollah or by targeted assassinations of perceived enemies. Hundreds of American and ­allied military personnel have been killed by its operations. Dozens of Iranian exiles, seen as enemies of the state, have been hunted down. Using local criminals and paid assassins, the IRGC has tried to silence Iranian journalists abroad, including in London, and intimidate those exposing the corruption within the heart of the IRGC itself.

The argument has always been that by banning the IRGC, Britain would lose any influence it had in Tehran – which is laughable. It's the same fantasy that drove Obama's misbegotten rapprochement with Iran – a rapprochement which was entirely one-sided, given that Tehran has never stopped proclaiming, loudly and clearly, that its hatred of the west is theologically driven, is absolute, and is unchangeable, while its chief foreign policy goal is the destruction of Israel. 

Also, the IRGC, like the Iranian regime as a whole, is not going through a good period. They're suffering. We need to push against them rather than appease.

Despite bellicose threats of revenge, the IRGC had little response to the killing of Soleimani. It could not defend Hezbollah, its proxy in Lebanon, when it was all but ­destroyed by Israeli attacks. Its presence in Syria has crumbled since the ousting of President ­Assad. And it cannot suppress the jostling for power among would-be successors to the ailing Khamenei. Britain still has an embassy in Tehran and the limited ability to monitor events. It would make little difference if this was shut in response to a ban on the IRGC operating in Britain.

The evidence is plentiful, the plotting unacceptable and the risk of espionage and terrorism too great to ignore.