14 Western allies denounce surge in Iranian assassination and kidnapping plots

Britain and 13 allies, including the United States and France, condemned on Thursday what they called a surge in assassination, kidnapping, and harassment plots by Iranian intelligence services targeting individuals in Europe and North America.

“We are united in our opposition to the attempts of Iranian intelligence services to kill, kidnap, and harass people in Europe and North America in clear violation of our sovereignty,” the countries said in a joint statement.

The governments — including Albania, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US — called on the Iranian authorities to immediately stop such illegal activities.

They said such actions were increasingly carried out in collaboration with international criminal networks.

Since early 2022, Britain says it has disrupted more than 20 Iran-linked plots to kidnap or kill individuals in the UK, including British nationals and others Tehran views as threats.

A report released Tuesday by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said Iran is increasing its efforts to carry out attacks against Jewish targets in Europe, utilizing local proxies, such as the Foxtrot and Rumba gangs in Sweden, and other criminal networks in the UK, Germany, France, and Belgium.

The UK Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee said earlier this month in a report that Iran poses a significant and wide-ranging threat to Britain and, while not in the same league as Russia or China, the British government was not prepared.

The ISC said the British government should fully examine whether it would be practicable to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an action for which some lawmakers have long called.

In March, the British government announced it would require the Iranian state to register all political influence activities, citing increasingly aggressive behavior by Tehran’s intelligence services.

In October, Reuters reported that Iran was behind a wave of attempted assassinations and abductions across Europe and the United States.

In December, two Romanians were charged after a journalist working for a Persian language media organization in London was stabbed in the leg, while just months three Iranian men appeared in court charged with assisting Iran’s foreign intelligence service and plotting violence against journalists.

In May, UK police arrested eight Iranian men who were reportedly suspected of plotting to attack the Israeli Embassy in London, with some reports saying the men were arrested mere hours before they planned to carry out such an attack.

Zev Stub contributed to this report.