UK and 13 allies accuse Iran of plotting killings and kidnappings on Western soil with Tehran rejecting the claim.
The United Kingdom and 13 allied nations have publicly accused Iran’s intelligence services of orchestrating a wave of assassination attempts, abductions and intimidation campaigns against individuals residing in Europe and North America.
In a joint statement issued on Thursday, governments including the United States, France, Germany and Canada denounced Tehran’s alleged extraterritorial operations as a flagrant breach of national sovereignty.
“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 group said.
The signatories – which also included Albania, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK – urged Iranian authorities to halt these activities, which they claimed were increasingly carried out in partnership with international criminal groups.
Iran rejects accusations
In a statement, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei described the claims as “baseless”, calling them “an attempt to divert public attention from the most pressing issue of the day, the genocide in occupied Palestine”.
Baqaei said the accusations were “blatant fabrications… designed as part of a malicious Iranophobia campaign aimed at exerting pressure on the great Iranian nation”.
A UK parliamentary committee recently attributed at least 15 plots targeting individuals in the UK since 2022 to Iranian intelligence operatives.
British officials have responded with tighter measures. In March, the UK government said Iran would be required to register any political influence activity inside the country, citing “escalating aggression” from its intelligence services.
In May, UK police arrested seven Iranians over alleged threats to national security, which Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced as “suspicious and unwarranted”.
Similar concerns have emerged elsewhere in Europe. Dutch security services said Tehran was behind a foiled 2024 attempt to assassinate an Iranian dissident in the Netherlands – charges Iran denied.
Authorities arrested two suspects, one of whom is also linked to the shooting of Spanish politician Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a vocal supporter of the Iranian opposition.
Across the Atlantic, the US Department of Justice charged three European-based gang members and later a senior Iranian official with plotting to kill an Iranian-American journalist. Two were convicted earlier this year, while the third pleaded guilty. Prosecutors claimed the men acted at the behest of the Iranian state. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called such statements “baseless”.
New tensions
The allegations come at a time of renewed tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme. Talks between Iran and Western powers remain frozen. Last week, Iranian officials held “frank” discussions in Istanbul with diplomats from the UK, Germany and France.
The meeting marked the first engagement since Israel’s mid-June air strikes on Iran, which triggered a 12-day flare-up involving US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
While Israel insists Iran is covertly pursuing nuclear weapons, a claim it has not substantiated, Tehran maintains its nuclear activities are for civilian use only.
US intelligence agencies, meanwhile, assessed in March that Iran was not actively developing a bomb, contradicting former President Donald Trump’s claim that it was “close” to doing so
