The threat of “physical attacks” on the British public by Iran has surged “significantly” in just three years, with at least 15 attempts at murder or kidnap against UK nationals or residents, Parliament’s intelligence watchdog revealed on Thursday.
The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) said the threat from Tehran was now “comparable with that posed by Russia”, warning that Iranian dissidents and Jewish and Israeli interests were in the firing line of an increasingly aggressive campaign.
The damning report, which examined evidence from early 2022 to August 2023, painted a stark picture of Iran’s “persistent” and “unpredictable” threat to British national security, despite not accounting for the dramatic escalation in Middle East tensions following the October 7 Hamas attacks.
Committee chairman Lord Beamish said: “Iran poses a wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat to the UK, UK nationals and UK interests.
The Labour peer added: “As the committee was told, Iran is there across the full spectrum of all the kinds of threats we have to be concerned with.
Rising Physical Threat
Between the beginning of 2022 and August 2023, the report documented at least 15 attempts at murder or kidnap against British nationals or UK residents, marking what the committee described as a “sharp increase” in plots against opponents of the Iranian regime on British soil.
The committee urged the Government to make clear to Tehran that such attempts would “constitute an attack on the UK and would receive the appropriate response”.
“Iran has a high appetite for risk when conducting offensive activity,” Lord Beamish warned, noting that Tehran’s intelligence services were “ferociously well-resourced with significant areas of asymmetric strength”.
Calls for IRGC Proscription
The report has intensified pressure on the Government to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, with MPs from across the political spectrum demanding immediate action.
Luke Akehurst, Labour MP for North Durham, said: “I thoroughly welcome the move to proscribe Palestine Action after their violent attacks on defence companies and, most alarmingly, on RAF Brize Norton.
It’s now urgent, given the conflict in Iran, that the Government moves to proscribe the IRGC, which is a terrorist organisation that represents a significant threat, including here in the UK,” he added.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage echoed these calls, warning The Telegraph: “The Iranian regime has clearly been funding propaganda hubs and promoting terror throughout the UK.
“When will Starmer stand up to the Ayatollah and proscribe the IRGC?” the Reform chief asked.
Intelligence Gaps Exposed
The watchdog delivered a scathing assessment of Whitehall’s preparedness, criticising a “lack of Iran-specific expertise” and warning there was “seemingly no interest in building a future pipeline of specialists”.
One witness told the committee: “If you have people running policy in the Foreign Office who don’t speak a word of Persian, then that is a fat lot of good.
The report found that whilst Iran remained a target for espionage operations in the UK, these were “narrower in scope and scale” and “less sophisticated” than threats from Russia and China.
Nuclear Concerns
The committee warned that the nuclear threat from Iran had increased since the US withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018, arguing that de-escalation “must be a priority.
Whilst Iran had been “broadly compliant” with the 2015 nuclear deal, the report found that since former President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement, Tehran “had the capability to arm in a relatively short period.
The watchdog cautioned that Iran-backed cultural and educational centres, such as the Islamic Centre of England, could be being used to “promote violent and extremist ideology.
Government Response
A UK Government spokesperson said: “This independent report demonstrates the vital work our security and intelligence agencies do countering threats posed by states such as Iran.
“This Government will take action wherever necessary to protect national security, which is a foundation of our plan for change,” they added.
The Government has already placed Iran on the “enhanced tier” of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme and introduced further sanctions against individuals and entities linked to Iran, bringing the total number of sanctions to 450.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis announced that training and guidance on state threats activity was now being offered by counter-terrorism policing to all 45 territorial police forces across the UK.
“That will mean that when any frontline officer encounters a suspected state threats incident, they will know what to do and what to look for to ensure that our communities are kept safe,” he said in Parliament.
Opposition Meeting Controversy
In recent weeks, Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last Shah, has been meeting British politicians in London to discuss regime change in Tehran.
Farage, alongside scores of politicians across the British right, met with Pahlavi during his UK visit, which included a Parliament address co-hosted by Labour MP Luke Akehurst and Conservative MP Aphra Brandreth.
According to an invitation seen by Middle East Eye, Pahlavi briefed MPs and peers on “the ongoing situation in Iran and his plan for the collapse of the current regime and for a stable transition to a secular democracy.
The meetings have drawn criticism from some quarters, with Ali Milani, chair of the Labour Muslim Network, calling the Parliament event a “slap in the face of every Iranian fighting for freedom and justice.
Persistent Threat
The ISC report represents the latest warning from British authorities about the danger Tehran poses, with the committee recommending that the Government fully examine whether it would be “practicable to proscribe the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Both Canada and the United States have already proscribed the IRGC, with the organisation linked to assassination plots, cyber-attacks, and covert operations targeting dissidents and civilians across Europe and North America.
Despite the report only covering evidence up to August 2023, before the dramatic escalation in Middle East tensions, the committee insisted its recommendations remained “relevant” and urged immediate Government action.
Lord Beamish concluded that whilst Iran’s activity appeared to be “less strategic and on a smaller scale than Russia and China“, the Islamic Republic posed “a wide-ranging threat to UK national security, which should not be underestimated.
The committee noted that by August 2023, the UK had sanctioned 508 individuals and entities relating to Iran, but urged the Government to reconsider whether sanctions “will in practice deliver behavioural change or in fact unhelpfully push Iran towards China”.
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Image Credit:
Ali Khamenei – Photo by Khamenei.ir, licensed under CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
