Iran poses ‘persistent’ threat to the UK, new report warns
A new government report into the threat posed by Iran to the UK, and specifically Jewish and Israeli communities in the country, has been released. Does this country need to prepare for future attacks?
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In brief…
- UK security services prevented 15 attacks from Iran between 2023 and 2024, and five more since then.
- Lord Beamish, chair of the parliamentary committee that produced the report, tells The News Agents the threat posed by Iran could result in the "collateral damage” of British lives.
- He is now calling for the UK government to introduce a long-term strategy to counter specific threats from Iran, rather than “firefighting” incidents as they arise.
What’s the story?
A new government report has found that the UK is facing "wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable" threats from Iran.
Parliament's intelligence and security committee, which conducted the report, only assessed information up until August 2023, so escalation in conflict in the region has not been taken into account.
It examined assassinations, kidnappings, espionage, cyber attacks and nuclear capabilities of the Iranian state.
The report comes just weeks after Israel launched military action against Iran, backed by the US, over a perceived nuclear threat from its neighbour.
Committee chair, Baron Beamish, tells The News Agents that while the threat posed by Iran is "persistent", it is dwarfed by the threat posed by countries such as Russia and China.
"One of the main takes of the report is that there is a wide ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat – in terms of the threat to both here, Israeli interests, and the Jewish community [in the UK]," he tells Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel.
He adds that it has been engaged in an obvious campaign of cyber attacks and wider disinformation campaign in the UK, and the threat is "persistent".
"If you look at the Iranian regime, its main focus is its own survival, and it takes a very aggressive attitude against anyone who threatens that," Lord Beamish adds.
"One of our witnesses said anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli themes are in their DNA, and it's reckless in the sense they copy what they do in the region, to do the same in Europe.
"Increasingly, what you're seeing is organised crime and other groups being used to target dissidents. Sadly, in both the Netherlands and in Turkey, four people have died at the hands, not directly, of the Iranians, but of organised crime groups."
Lord Beamish says British security services thwarted 15 attacks between 2023 and 2024, and another five since then. The use of organised crime groups and proxies make it more complicated to identify the involvement of Iran. These proxies include Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
"It's a real threat," he adds, citing instances where British people in other parts of the Middle East have been "kidnapped" and taken to Iran, resulting in the execution of one dual-national citizen.
He is now calling for the UK government to implement a long term strategy to address the threat posed by Iran, describing efforts until now as "firefighting", with the UK simply responding to incidents as they arise.
Despite this, he says Iran is not in the "premier league" of threats to the UK – and is dwarfed by those posed by the likes of Russia or China.
But it remains a threat that “should not be underestimated”, he adds, due to the "unpredictability" with which it operates, and that it doesn't consider attacks on Jewish interests or Israeli interests in Britain as an attack on the UK.
"Those types of attacks are attacks on the UK," he says.
"The concern the committee and the security service share is collateral damage to this could be UK citizens."
But it's the "persistent" nature, and variety, of attacks that Beamish says is of greatest concern.
"It does give challenges for any government or any or any nation to try and fight on all those different attacks.