Seven Iranians in Great Britain were arrested in two suspected terror cells for planning attacks or threatening national security, law enforcement said Sunday.
London’s Metropolitan Police said they had arrested five men between the ages of 29 and 46 on Saturday on suspicion of preparing “a terrorist act.” Four of the men were Iranian, while the nationality of the fifth was yet to be determined. The Iranians were questioned under section 5 of the United Kingdom’s Terrorism Act.
Three other Iranians were detained under section 27 of the National Security Act 2023, applicable to anyone involved in “foreign power threat activity.”
“Speculation mounted on Sunday evening the suspected terror group was looking to hit a synagogue or another target linked to the Jewish community,” The Daily Mail reported, adding that at the time of their arrests, the terrorists were “reportedly hours away from staging a massacre.”
According to British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, the “two major operations” arresting the suspected terrorists prevented one of the biggest threats “we have seen in recent years,” adding, “These are major operations and the ongoing investigation is immensely important, and, of course, it involves Iranian nationals in both investigations. But this reflects the complexity of the kinds of challenges to our national security we continue to face.”
Last October, Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, said the agency had dealt with 20 “potentially lethal” plots backed by Iran since 2022. In March of this year, similarly, former MI6 boss Sir Richard Dearlove said Iran and its proxies constitute a “threat” to British Jews.
“The threat from Iran sits in a wider context of the growing, diversifying and evolving threat that the UK faces from malign activity by a number of states,” British security minister Dan Jarvis recently told the British parliament.
“The threat from states has become increasingly interconnected in nature, blurring the lines between: domestic and international; online and offline; and states and their proxies,” he continued. “Turning specifically to Iran, the regime has become increasingly emboldened, asserting itself more aggressively to advance their objectives and undermine ours.”
Iran’s hatred of President Donald Trump has also been more in evidence lately; the editor of the Iranian newspaper Kayhan, Hossein Shariatmadari, who is closely associated with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, wrote on April 4 of Trump, “I said: He has crossed every line! The day is not far off when a few bullets will be fired into his hollow head to avenge the blood of the martyr [Qassem] Soleimani, and he will drink his cursed cup of death!” On April 7, he published an article in which he said his statements were based on Khamenei’s own comments.
As far back as 2011, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) stated before Congress, “Recent reports indicate that the Iranian government is a threat to homeland security by attempting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador on our soil using drug cartels operating on our doorstep. … In February, the International Atomic Energy Agency director agreed that Iranian leaders seemed very determined to build a nuclear weapon. … Remember that World War I started because of an assassination of a foreign diplomat.”
After noting the various instances where Iran’s proxies had killed hundreds of Americans, retired U.S. Army General John M. Keane prophetically warned, “This much I do know: If we continue the half-measures of the past, the Iranians will continue to kill us, will continue to sponsor terrorism and use their proxies against our interests, and will continue to pursue nuclear weapons. The next nightmare the world is awaiting is around the corner, and it is an unchecked Iran with nuclear weapons.”
