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Iran’s ambassador to the UK will be summoned after counterterrorism police arrested two groups of Iranians in separate operations last weekend, security minister Dan Jarvis said on Tuesday.
Jarvis told the House of Commons the arrests of eight Iranian nationals were “some of the largest counter-state threats and counterterrorism actions that we have seen in recent times”. He added that Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer “will be meeting with the Iranian ambassador to discuss these matters”.
Five men were arrested on Saturday in West London, Swindon, Rochdale, Stockport and Manchester on “suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act”.
Jarvis refused to say more about the objective of the alleged plotters, other than to reiterate statements by police that the investigation “relates to a suspected plot to target specific premises”.
One of the men had been released on bail under strict conditions, Jarvis said.
A separate group of three Iranians were arrested in London on the same day under the National Security Act, which allows warrantless arrests if people are suspected of being involved in “foreign power threat activity”.
Jarvis told the Commons: “What now follows is an incredibly complex set of investigations, involving hundreds more officers, carrying out forensic searches, collecting vital evidence across different sites across the country, and securing witness statements backed up by the continued efforts of our security and intelligence agencies. This is careful, painstaking work.”
The operations “come against a backdrop of complex, interconnected threats to the UK, where state threats and counterterrorism, as well as serious and organised crime, are intertwined together”, he added.
The operation was co-ordinated through the Counter-Terrorism Operations Centre, or CTOC, which was created in 2021 and brings together and coordinates the UK’s agencies alongside the agencies of Five Eyes partners.
The head of Britain’s MI5 domestic security service, Sir Ken McCallum, said in October that his agents and police had tackled 20 “potentially lethal” plots backed by Iran since 2022, most aimed at dissident Iranians living in Britain.
The Iranian embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
