Four men arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran
Four men have been arrested on the suspicion of spying for Iran on the Jewish community, the Metropolitan Police has said.
The men were suspected of conducting surveillance of Jewish people in London.
One Iranian national and three British-Iranian nationals were arrested in the early hours of Friday morning in Barnet and Watford.
They were arrested on the basis of laws in the National Security Act by assisting a foreign intelligence service.
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said: “Today’s arrests are part of a long-running investigation and part of our ongoing work to disrupt malign activity where we suspect it.
“We understand the public may be concerned, in particular the Jewish community, and as always, I would ask them to remain vigilant and if they see or hear anything that concerns them, then to contact us.”
Deputy prime minister David Lammy praised the police in morning interviews but did not give further details on the arrests.
He told ITV: “Iran is the biggest state sponsor of terrorism globally and sadly that is in effect in our own society as well.
“Our intelligence services and counterterrorism police have thwarted lots of action over the last few years.”
“This is now a live investigation, so I won’t comment on that any further, except to thank our security staff and police for continuing to keep our people safe and doing everything they can where people would cause us harm and individuals in our country harm.”
Iran war raises tensions
The arrests come amid the escalation of war in the Middle East, with missiles being sent out of Iran into areas including Dubai, Kuwait and Israel.
Defence secretary John Healey said last week the UK terror threat was “absolutely” under review. It is currently on the third highest level, which rates the risk as “substanital”.
Healey told Sky News on Sunday: “When you get a regime like this lashing out in the Middle East indiscriminately and widely, hitting civilian as well as military targets, when you have some of its proxies capable of other actions on their behalf, then of course, our force protection in the region is at its highest.”
“Our alert and our vigilance in the UK is also high.”
Threat levels are determined by a body within MI5 and brought forward by the home secretary.
Intelligence services have highlighted the threats posed by Iran and its proxies for British nationals both in the UK and across the world.
Sir Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, said more than twenty potentially lethal Iran-backed plots had been monitored in the past 12 months.
Last year, a group of Iranian men were arrested on suspicion of plotting an attack at the Israeli embassy in Kensington, west London. They were released with no further action.