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Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
We need to ban the IRGC
It takes some doing to be aware of a serious national security threat but to decide that it would be better not to properly address it. For years, there have been widespread demands for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps – a shadowy organisation that manages to combine Islamic fanaticism and terrorist ambitions with all the training, equipment and support of a modern nation-state – to be booted out of Britain. Yet the Government has turned a deaf ear. Last week, Iran came as close as it has ever been to carrying out a mass atrocity on British soil, with its agents only thwarted within hours of the attack in a major counter-terror operation. Still there are no serious moves to ban the organisation on our shores. What are we waiting for? It's not like the mechanisms aren't there. In 2023, we proscribed the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary outfit, and the following year, the terror group Hizb ut-Tahrir was added to the list. Neither of these come anywhere close to the threat posed by Iran. The danger has been mounting for years. In 2022, the director general of MI5 revealed that Iranian spooks – 'a sophisticated adversary' – had attempted ten assassinations in our country within the preceding 12 months. 'Iran projects threat to the UK directly, through its aggressive intelligence services,' Ken McCallum said in his annual speech on national security. 'At its sharpest, this includes ambitions to kidnap or even kill British or UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the regime.' Iran, McCallum said, was the 'state actor which most frequently crosses into terrorism.' That same year, two British-Iranian broadcasters were notified of an assassination plot and armed police were deployed to the channel's studios. Here was another Skripal incident waiting to happen. Decisive action came there none. The following year, Matt Jukes, head of counter-terrorism policing at the Met, revealed that the security services had foiled 15 abduction and murder plots by the IRGC. The dissident Iranian broadcaster in question was forced to move to the United States, where the IRGC is indeed banned, after further warnings about the safety of its staff. It is hard not to gain the impression of the despairing security services playing Whac-A-Mole while the Government ponders other things. Last March, a dissident Iranian journalist, Pouria Zeraati, was stabbed outside his home in London by Eastern European mercenaries on the payroll of Tehran, a common technique to cover their tracks. Once again, a chorus of voices pleaded with the Government to ban the IRGC. Before rising to power, David Lammy even pledged to do so. Yet once he had entered office, such ambitions evaporated. The threat from Tehran is not only faced by dissidents, who have been threatened with guns – with guns – in our cities. In 2023, the then-security minister, Tom Tugendhat, confirmed that Iran had been 'mapping' prominent Jews in Britain as 'a preparation for future lethal operations' to be carried out as a strategic means of exerting pressure on Israel when the time came. Were Jewish institutions the targets of last week's plot? So far we do not know. Still the complacency held. A few months later, the Jewish Chronicle revealed that British universities had been helping Iran to develop cutting-edge drone technology with a military application. During Prime Minister's Questions, Rishi Sunak announced a probe. Whatever his intentions, this immediately entered the long grass and has now been completely forgotten. The question of banning the IRGC has always involved a tussle between the Home Office and the Foreign Office, with the latter blocking attempts to take the matter seriously. The arguments made by the diplomats are as sophisticated as they are flimsy, and speak volumes about the condition of the establishment today. Firstly, they say, Tehran may retaliate by closing Britain's embassy in the city, which is necessary not just for diplomacy but also for espionage. To this, we need only respond: come on. Secondly, they have traditionally worried that banning the group would set us at odds with our European allies, allowing Iran to exploit this disunity. During the nuclear negotiations, when Joe Biden was doggedly pursuing a policy of appeasement, Britain was – believe it or not – the most hawkish voice in the room. With the Donald in the Oval Office, however, such hesitations seem rather passé. Lastly, they fear that setting a new precedent of banning an organ of a nation-state would allow campaigners to demand similar treatment for allies like Israel. To which we must say: for God's sake, toughen up, please. What all of this boils down to is a mealy-mouthed range of excuses that seek to place Rolls Royce diplomacy and bureaucratic hand-wringing above the urgent requirements of national security. True, the Government has recently listed the IRGC in the highest category of a new foreign influence register, while Jonathan Hall, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, is considering further steps. But all of this amounts to unnecessary convolution when all we need to do is grow a spine. Otherwise, we may be heading for the mother of all 'I told you so' moments, and that is one that nobody will relish. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
We need to ban the IRGC
It takes some doing to be aware of a serious national security threat but to decide that it would be better not to properly address it. For years, there have been widespread demands for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps – a shadowy organisation that manages to combine Islamic fanaticism and terrorist ambitions with all the training, equipment and support of a modern nation-state – to be booted out of Britain. Yet the Government has turned a deaf ear. Last week, Iran came as close as it has ever been to carrying out a mass atrocity on British soil, with its agents only thwarted within hours of the attack in a major counter-terror operation. Still there are no serious moves to ban the organisation on our shores. What are we waiting for? It's not like the mechanisms aren't there. In 2023, we proscribed the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary outfit, and the following year, the terror group Hizb ut-Tahrir was added to the list. Neither of these come anywhere close to the threat posed by Iran. The danger has been mounting for years. In 2022, the director general of MI5 revealed that Iranian spooks – 'a sophisticated adversary' – had attempted ten assassinations in our country within the preceding 12 months. 'Iran projects threat to the UK directly, through its aggressive intelligence services,' Ken McCallum said in his annual speech on national security. 'At its sharpest, this includes ambitions to kidnap or even kill British or UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the regime.' Iran, McCallum said, was the 'state actor which most frequently crosses into terrorism.' That same year, two British-Iranian broadcasters were notified of an assassination plot and armed police were deployed to the channel's studios. Here was another Skripal incident waiting to happen. Decisive action came there none. The following year, Matt Jukes, head of counter-terrorism policing at the Met, revealed that the security services had foiled 15 abduction and murder plots by the IRGC. The dissident Iranian broadcaster in question was forced to move to the United States, where the IRGC is indeed banned, after further warnings about the safety of its staff. It is hard not to gain the impression of the despairing security services playing Whac-A-Mole while the Government ponders other things. Last March, a dissident Iranian journalist, Pouria Zeraati, was stabbed outside his home in London by Eastern European mercenaries on the payroll of Tehran, a common technique to cover their tracks. Once again, a chorus of voices pleaded with the Government to ban the IRGC. Before rising to power, David Lammy even pledged to do so. Yet once he had entered office, such ambitions evaporated. The threat from Tehran is not only faced by dissidents, who have been threatened with guns – with guns – in our cities. In 2023, the then-security minister, Tom Tugendhat, confirmed that Iran had been 'mapping' prominent Jews in Britain as 'a preparation for future lethal operations' to be carried out as a strategic means of exerting pressure on Israel when the time came. Were Jewish institutions the targets of last week's plot? So far we do not know. Still the complacency held. A few months later, the Jewish Chronicle revealed that British universities had been helping Iran to develop cutting-edge drone technology with a military application. During Prime Minister's Questions, Rishi Sunak announced a probe. Whatever his intentions, this immediately entered the long grass and has now been completely forgotten. The question of banning the IRGC has always involved a tussle between the Home Office and the Foreign Office, with the latter blocking attempts to take the matter seriously. The arguments made by the diplomats are as sophisticated as they are flimsy, and speak volumes about the condition of the establishment today. Firstly, they say, Tehran may retaliate by closing Britain's embassy in the city, which is necessary not just for diplomacy but also for espionage. To this, we need only respond: come on. Secondly, they have traditionally worried that banning the group would set us at odds with our European allies, allowing Iran to exploit this disunity. During the nuclear negotiations, when Joe Biden was doggedly pursuing a policy of appeasement, Britain was – believe it or not – the most hawkish voice in the room. With the Donald in the Oval Office, however, such hesitations seem rather passé. Lastly, they fear that setting a new precedent of banning an organ of a nation-state would allow campaigners to demand similar treatment for allies like Israel. To which we must say: for God's sake, toughen up, please. What all of this boils down to is a mealy-mouthed range of excuses that seek to place Rolls Royce diplomacy and bureaucratic hand-wringing above the urgent requirements of national security. True, the Government has recently listed the IRGC in the highest category of a new foreign influence register, while Jonathan Hall, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, is considering further steps. But all of this amounts to unnecessary convolution when all we need to do is grow a spine. Otherwise, we may be heading for the mother of all 'I told you so' moments, and that is one that nobody will relish.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Iran executes man accused of helping Israel kill Revolutionary Guards colonel
Iran has executed a 36-year-old man it accused of helping the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency, kill a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Tehran in 2022. Iranian state media said Mohsen Langarneshin was hanged, the usual method of execution in Iran, at Ghezel Hesar prison early on Wednesday morning. Langarneshin's family and human rights groups insisted the former IT consultant was innocent of the charges against him and that any reported confessions were obtained by torture or blackmail. On Tuesday, Langarneshin's mother made an emotional appeal for his life to be spared. 'Please pray for my child … I do not know if he will see the sunrise tomorrow or not,' she said in a post on social media. 'I don't know why the court refuses to accept any of the documents and evidence we bring. We have so many pieces of evidence that prove his innocence, but nothing is accepted.' According to Iran's state news agency IRNA, Langarneshin was a 'senior spy' for the Mossad who provided critical 'technical support' for the assassination of Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, a colonel in the Revolutionary Guards who was shot five times by gunmen on a motorbike outside his home in Tehran, as well as for other alleged operations. The IRNA report said the Mossad recruited Langarneshin in 2020 and that he met with Israeli intelligence officers in Georgia and Nepal. He was arrested in July 2023. Activists fear that Iran scapegoats innocent people after failing to catch the actual agents, who have often escaped overseas by the time investigators identify them. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights monitor, said: 'Mohsen Langarneshin, who was sentenced to death in an unfair judicial process based on confessions obtained under torture and charged with espionage for Israel, was hanged at dawn today.' 'The Iranian authorities' execution machine is accelerating every day, taking the lives of more people,' he added, describing the executions as 'extrajudicial killings'. At least 335 people have been hanged in Iran so far this year alone, campaigners say. Iran executed more than 900 people in 2024. A man was executed in December 2023 after he was found guilty of collaborating with the Mossad. Four others were hanged a year earlier over alleged ties to Israel. The US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, which had campaigned over Langarneshin's case, said he had been convicted at a revolutionary court presided over by a judge, Abolghasem Salavati, who has been put under US and EU sanctions and is notorious for handing out death sentences. 'He denied all charges, stating that his confessions were extracted under torture,' the group said. The revolutionary courts were set up after the 1979 revolution and deliver often summary justice in closed hearings. Israel and Iran have been engaged in a shadow war of assassinations and bombings for decades. A series of attacks attributed to the Mossad has targeted Iranian scientists, experts and academics, many connected to Iran's nuclear programme. Last year, Israel is thought to have killed Ismail Haniyeh, the most senior political leader of Hamas, with a bomb in a bedroom of a government guesthouse in Tehran In Israel, a 72-year-old man was sentenced on Tuesday to 10 years in prison accused of discussing plots with Iranian intelligence services to assassinate senior government officials, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The US president, Donald Trump, is seeking a new deal with the Iranian leadership on its nuclear programme, with both Israel and its ally the US long refusing to rule out a military strike on Iran. The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Wednesday that Iran expected the next round of negotiations with the US to be held in Rome on Saturday, adding that Iran also anticipated having a meeting on Friday with France, Germany and the UK to discuss the talks.
The Guardian
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Iran executes man accused of helping Israel kill colonel in Revolutionary Guards
Iran has executed a 36-year-old man it accused of helping the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency, kill a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in Tehran in 2022. Iranian state media said Mohsen Langarneshin was hanged, the usual method of execution in Iran, at Ghezel Hesar prison early on Wednesday morning. Langarneshin's family and human rights groups insisted the former IT consultant was innocent of the charges against him and that any reported confessions were obtained by torture or blackmail. On Tuesday, Langarneshin's mother made an emotional appeal for his life to be spared. 'Please pray for my child … I do not know if he will see the sunrise tomorrow or not,' she said in a post on social media. 'I don't know why the court refuses to accept any of the documents and evidence we bring. We have so many pieces of evidence that prove his innocence, but nothing is accepted.' According to Iran's state news agency IRNA, Langarneshin was a 'senior spy' for the Mossad who provided critical 'technical support' for the assassination of Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, a colonel in the Revolutionary Guards who was shot five times by gunmen on a motorbike outside his home in Tehran, as well as for other alleged operations. The IRNA report said the Mossad recruited Langarneshin in 2020 and that he met with Israeli intelligence officers in Georgia and Nepal. He was arrested in July 2023. Activists fear that Iran scapegoats innocent people after failing to catch the actual agents who have often escaped overseas by the time investigators identify them. 'Mohsen Langarneshin, who was sentenced to death in an unfair judicial process based on confessions obtained under torture and charged with espionage for Israel, was hanged at dawn today,' said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) monitor. 'The Iranian authorities' execution machine is accelerating every day, taking the lives of more people,' he said, describing the executions as 'extrajudicial killings'. At least 335 people have been hanged in Iran so far this year alone, campaigners say. Iran executed more than 900 people in 2025. A man was executed in December 2023 after he was found guilty of collaborating with the Mossad. Four others were hanged a year earlier over alleged ties to Israel. The US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, which had campaigned over his case, said Langarneshin had been convicted at a revolutionary court presided over by judge Abolghasem Salavati, sanctioned by the US and EU and notorious for his handing out of death sentences. 'He denied all charges, stating that his confessions were extracted under torture,' the group said. The revolutionary courts were set up after the 1979 revolution and deliver often summary justice in closed hearings. Israel and Iran have been engaged in a shadow war of assassinations and bombings for decades. A series of attacks attributed to the Mossad has targeted Iranian scientists, experts and academics, many connected to Iran's nuclear programme. Last year, Israel is thought to have killed Ismail Haniyeh, the most senior political leader of Hamas, with a bomb in a bedroom of a government guesthouse in Tehran In Israel, a 72-year-old man was sentenced on Tuesday to 10 years in prison accused of discussing plots with Iranian intelligence services to assassinate senior government officials, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The hanging comes as the US president, Donald Trump, seeks to strike a new deal with the Iranian leadership on its nuclear programme, with both Israel and its ally the US long refusing to rule out a military strike on Iran. The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Wednesday that Iran expected the next round of negotiations with the US to be held in Rome on Saturday, adding that Iran also anticipated having a meeting on Friday with France, Germany and the UK to discuss the talks.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Here's What's In The New Rough Draft U.S.-Iran Nuclear Deal
The temperature in downtown Muscat over the weekend was 35 degrees Celsius, but for the swarms of high-level officials from the U.S. and Iran buzzing around busily discussing a new 'nuclear deal' it probably felt a lot hotter than that. On the one side was the delegation from the U.S. who found themselves in direct talks with their Iranian counterparts largely because their President threatened military action against the Islamic Republic if they did not attend. Washington's core aim is to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons and to prevent Israel from launching a massive attack on the country which could ignite a war across the Middle East. On the other side were the Iranian negotiators whose presence attested to the depth of their country's economic malaise, leaving the government facing increased public discontent and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) unable effectively spread Iran's version of Islam around the world. Tehran's core aim is to avoid being gain sanctions relief to rebuild its economy and influence via the IRGC and its proxies, and to avoid a huge military assault by Israel, backed by the U.S. So, what was discussed and what will happen next? 'The deal on the table was – and remains – the same in essence as the deal [U.S. President Donald] Trump wanted to put in place after he withdrew the U.S. from the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or colloquially 'the nuclear deal'] in May 2018,' a senior source who works closely with the European Union's (E.U.) security complex exclusively told over the weekend. 'However, the new rough draft includes two additional points which [Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin] Netanyahu managed to get DT [Donald Trump] agreeing to: first, the indefinite presence of weapons inspectors in Iran, and second, complete access to the banking and financial records of Iranian banks and 47 companies registered in 16 countries that are the most closely associated with the IRGC and related operations,' he added. Over and above these two key new additions, three 'core concepts' that underpinned the original 2015 JCPOA remain in the new rough draft. As analysed in full in my latest book on the new global oil market order, the first was the safety and security of U.S. troops from Iranian or Iranian-sponsored attacks around the globe; the second was the safety and security of Israel; and the third is that Iran will never seek to manufacture, acquire, deploy or use any nuclear weapons. Twelve specific clauses were geared towards these aims and remain broadly in place, although some have been toughened up, and one has been dropped ('to withdraw all forces under Iran's command throughout the entirety of Syria'). Two – dealing with activities connected to various of Iran's proxies have been incorporated into other first was to declare to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) a full account of the prior military dimensions of its nuclear programme and permanently and verifiably abandon such work in perpetuity. The second is to stop enrichment and never pursue plutonium reprocessing, including closing its heavy water reactor. The third is to provide the IAEA with unqualified access to all sites throughout the entire country. The fourth is to end its proliferation of ballistic missiles and halt further launching or development of nuclear-capable missile systems. The fifth is to release all U.S. citizens as well as citizens of U.S. partners and allies. The sixth is to end support to Middle East terrorist groups. The seventh is to respect the sovereignty of the Iraqi government and permit the disarming, demobilisation and reintegration of Shia militias. The eighth is to cease regular military support and support from the IRGC and related entities for terrorists and militant partners around the world. And the ninth is to end its threatening behaviour against its neighbours, including its threats to destroy Israel. For its part, Tehran's negotiators also began discussions over the weekend in Oman with elements discussed not just with Trump's team back in 2018 but also those which had been discussed with the team of Barack Obama that put together the original JCPOA in 2015. It is interesting to note here that Trump's original template for a harder line nuclear deal with Iran after the U.S.'s withdrawal from its in 2018 was virtually identical to this original tough version that former President Obama wanted to implement, as also detailed in full in my latest book. At those points – and now – Iran wanted three main items considered. First, compensation by the U.S. for the damage done by sanctions to its economy. Second, immediate access to all of Iran's frozen deposits in Europe, the Far East and everywhere else. Third, guarantees that Israel does not continue to increase its intelligence and military presence in the region to threaten the security of Iran. 'The first of these can be negotiated around easily enough by stressing that any substantive sanctions relief given from the U.S. to Iran once a new deal has been agreed will ultimately compensate for monies lost as a result of previous sanctions,' the E.U. source told over the weekend. 'The third one too should be easy enough to get around, as the U.S. can say it will do its best to ensure that Israel abides by the spirit of any new agreement, although ultimately it cannot dictate Israeli foreign policy on any country,' he added. 'The second condition is more difficult, as Europe is not included in these talks [in Oman], which was a tactical mistake by the U.S., I think,' he underlined. The reason for this is that the European members of the P5-plus-1 Group that signed the 2015 JCPOA on 14 July – France, UK, 'plus' Germany (the other signatories being the U.S., Russia and China) – are the only ones capable of implementing the additional 'snapback sanctions' on Iran ahead of their expiry date of 18 October this year. These comprise a comprehensive range of UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions on Iran that were lifted from the Iranian economy when the 2015 JCPOA was signed. These would include multiple new financial sanctions on companies and individuals and increased surveillance by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The FATF has 40 active criteria and mechanisms in place to prevent money laundering -- an activity that is vital to the IRGC's activities across the world. It also has nine criteria and mechanisms in place to do the same for the financing of terrorism and related activities -- again, a core of the IRGC's role in promoting Iran's brand of Islam around the globe. The FATF also has swingeing powers to wield against individuals, companies, or countries who transgress any of its standards and is extremely aggressive in using them by degrees, depending on whether the sanctioned entity is on its 'grey' or 'black' list. 'The U.K. and France are tuned in to demand an immediate triggering after the [October] deadline, perhaps because they have more accurate information about the stockpile of Iran's enriched material, increased number of Russian nuclear scientists sent to Iran between June 2024 and February 2025 and the three top missile experts from Pyongyang who have been in Iran for 140 days or so,' said the E.U. source. 'We are told that the progress on weaponisation know-how has been expedited to critical levels,' he underlined. It is clearly in Iran's interests to have as many of the current sanctions against it removed. This would allow it time to rebuild its economy and to re-finance the activities of the IRGC and its proxies. However, during every previous round of direct and indirect talks on creating a new JCPOA, the sticking point has been the insistence of the U.S. and its allies for Iran to agree to adhering to the principles of the FATF. The underlying aim here was to erode the foundation of the regime established in the 1979 Islamic Revolution and its ongoing power as exercised through the guardians of that revolution – the IRGC – and Iran knows this. Consequently, said the Iran source, the negotiators from Tehran will push for any measures that threaten this scenario not to be present in any new JCPOA. Failing that, the Iranian team is likely to keep negotiations going until past the 18 October deadline for the snapback of UNSC sanctions by the European signatories of the original nuclear deal. 'This may also give them [the IRGC] some breathing space to reorganise and regroup ahead of any new major Israeli attacks against the nuclear facilities,' the E.U. source said. 'Typically Iran thinks by delaying the negotiations they may be able to get more concessions from the U.S. -- a tried and tested approach that has failed for the past forty-five years or so,' he concluded. By Simon Watkins for More Top Reads From this article on
