UK sanctions Iran-linked Swedish gang for violence against Jewish, Israeli targets
Britain bans entry, freezes assets of Foxtrot and its leadership, a month after similar move by US which cited criminal group’s part in thwarted January 2024 Israeli embassy attack
Britain has sanctioned the Swedish-based Foxtrot criminal network and its leader, Rawa Majid, over “their involvement in violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe on behalf of the Iranian regime,” UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Monday.
The sanctions, which the UK Foreign Office said would include travel bans and asset freezes, come a month after the US State Department slapped sanctions on Majid and Foxtrot, citing their part in a thwarted attack on Israel’s embassy in Stockholm in January 2024.
In a written statement, Lammy accused Iran of using “criminal gangs across the world to threaten people.”
He said the sanctions are part of Britain’s “ongoing response to Iranian hostilities in Europe,” which has seen Westminster sanction “450 Iranian individuals and entities, in response to the regime’s human rights violations, nuclear weapons program and malign influence internationally.”
Iran is sworn to Israel’s destruction and promotes that aim through a network of Middle East proxies that includes Gaza’s Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels. It has also sought to attack Israeli and Jewish targets around the world.
Last month, Britain said all people working in the country for Iran, its intelligence services or the Revolutionary Guard would have to register on a new list or face jail.
Iran became the first country to be placed on a stricter Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS), which aims to boost the UK’s national security against covert foreign influences.
The measures, which will come into effect later this year, will make failure to register a criminal offense, with a potential maximum sentence of five years in jail.
According to the UK government, British authorities have responded to more than 20 Iran-backed plots since 2022, which presented potentially lethal threats to British citizens and residents. Since 2020, Western security agencies have foiled at least 33 Iranian plots against Western officials as well as Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe and North America, according to court documents reviewed by Reuters.
In May 2024, Mossad said Foxtrot, acting on behalf of Iran, was behind an explosive device discovered and destroyed by law enforcement at the Israeli embassy in Stockholm that January. According to Mossad, Iran has been behind a string of terror attacks by criminal networks on Israeli embassies in Europe since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza and triggered a spike in antisemitism around the world.
Mossad’s Swedish counterpart Säpo confirmed the statement, saying Iran has for years carried out security-threatening activities inside Sweden.
The Israeli spy agency said at the time that Majid, the Foxtrot leader also known as the “Kurdish Fox,” had been working with Iran for months. He had fled to Iran from Turkey in September 2023, pursued by international law enforcement and Iraqi security forces, according to Mossad, which said he was arrested by Iran and recruited to plan a string of attacks in Europe against Jewish and Israeli targets.
Lazar Berman contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.