18 June 2025, 10:35

By Professor Matt Qvortrup

You may not have heard of Hossein Salami - but his role was anything but obscure.

He led Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a state-sponsored terrorist organisation at the heart of Tehran’s regional power projection. Over the weekend, he was killed in an Israeli airstrike. But his death does not mean the threat has disappeared.

The question of whether states should assassinate foreign officials, leaders, or military officers is endlessly debated. But in the case of Hossein Salami, few have mourned his violent end. That silence speaks volumes, but it has everything to do with the organisation he led.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is not just a military force; it is the spearhead of Iran’s ideological export project. Perhaps more than any other country, Iran uses the IRGC to spread its revolutionary Islamist agenda far beyond its borders. The group has a documented history of threatening lives in the United Kingdom - including plots to kill British citizens on British soil - both directly and........

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