UK, US, France, 11 other nations condemn Iranian intelligence threats

LONDON (Reuters): 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 – of 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.

Iran’s embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier in July it dismissed a report by UK lawmakers which said Tehran posed a significant and wide-ranging threat to Britain as unfounded, defamatory and dangerous.

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.

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

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