France probes possible ‘direct link’ to Iran after bomb attack foiled outside Bank of America

French authorities are investigating a suspected link to Iran after thwarting a bomb attack outside a Bank of America building in Paris on Saturday, the interior minister says.

The authorities suspect there could be a link to Iran due to similarities to other recent attempted attacks in Europe for which a pro-Iran group claimed responsibility, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez says.

On Saturday morning, Paris police officers spotted two suspects carrying a shopping bag near the premises of the Bank of America building in the 8th arrondissement of the French capital. Five suspects have been arrested, including two today, and the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into alleged terrorism-related offenses.

Authorities are making a “direct link” with Iran because the “modus operandi is in every respect similar to actions that have been carried out in the Netherlands and in Belgium,” Nuñez says on French radio RTL.

In those cases there were claims by a pro-Iranian group that “linked them to the conflict” in the Middle East, he says.

The group, known on Telegram under the name Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, which translates as the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, also claimed responsibility for an attack last week in London, where four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity were set on fire.

“Typically, intelligence services of this country [Iran] operate in this way: they use proxies, a series of subcontractors, often common criminals, to carry out highly targeted actions aimed at US interests, the interests of the Jewish community, or Iranian opposition figures,” Nuñez says.

Nuñez says French authorities have stepped up security around key personalities and sites since the beginning of the Iran war, including personal protection of some figures from the Iranian opposition.