Two further terror arrests after vandalism of planes at RAF base
Counter Terrorism Policing South East said two men aged 22 and 24, both from London, were taken into police custody after the incident at RAF Brize Norton on June 20.
They are accused of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, contrary to Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
On Friday, a woman, aged 29, of no fixed address, and two men, aged 36 and 24, from London, were also arrested accused of the same offence.
A 41-year-old woman, of no fixed address, was also arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, police said.
Palestine Action previously posted footage online showing people inside the Oxfordshire base, with one person appearing to ride an electric scooter up to an Airbus Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker, before spray-painting into its jet engine.
The Home Secretary Yvette Cooper made the decision to proscribe Palestine Action following the incident, with the arrests coming just days before the proscription is set to come into force.
Support for the group will become a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison when the ban comes into effect as soon as next Friday.
Palestine Action has staged demonstrations that have included spraying the London offices of Allianz Insurance with red paint and vandalising US President Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course in South Ayrshire.
As she announced plans for Palestine Action's proscription, Ms Cooper said the group's methods have become 'more aggressive', with its members showing 'willingness to use violence'.
At the time of the incident, the group said it had 'directly intervened in the genocide and prevented crimes against the Palestinian people' by 'decommissioning two military planes'.
Palestine Action said Thursday's arrests 'further demonstrates that proscription is not about enabling prosecutions under terrorism laws – it's about cracking down on non-violent protests which disrupt the flow of arms to Israel during its genocide in Palestine'.
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Reuters
36 minutes ago
- Reuters
U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites set up "cat-and-mouse" hunt for missing uranium
VIENNA, June 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. and Israeli bombing of Iranian nuclear sites creates a conundrum for U.N. inspectors in Iran: how can you tell if enriched uranium stocks, some of them near weapons grade, were buried beneath the rubble or had been secretly hidden away? Following last weekend's attacks on three of Iran's top nuclear sites - at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan - President Donald Trump said the facilities had been "obliterated" by U.S. munitions, including bunker-busting bombs. But the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Tehran's nuclear program, has said it's unclear exactly what damage was sustained at Fordow, a plant buried deep inside a mountain that produced the bulk of Iran's most highly enriched uranium. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday it was highly likely the sensitive centrifuges used to enrich uranium inside Fordow were badly damaged. It's far less clear whether Iran's 9 tonnes of enriched uranium - more than 400 kg of it enriched to close to weapons grade - were destroyed. Western governments are scrambling to determine what's become of it. Reuters spoke to more than a dozen current and former officials involved in efforts to contain Iran's nuclear program who said the bombing may have provided the perfect cover for Iran to make its uranium stockpiles disappear and any IAEA investigation would likely be lengthy and arduous. Olli Heinonen, previously the IAEA's top inspector from 2005 to 2010, said the search will probably involve complicated recovery of materials from damaged buildings as well as forensics and environmental sampling, which take a long time. "There could be materials which are inaccessible, distributed under the rubble or lost during the bombing," said Heinonen, who dealt extensively with Iran while at the IAEA and now works at the Stimson Center think-tank in Washington. Iran's more than 400 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity - a short step from the roughly 90% of weapons grade - are enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Even a fraction of that left unaccounted for would be a grave concern for Western powers that believe Iran is at least keeping the option of nuclear weapons open. There are indications Iran may have moved some of its enriched uranium before it could be struck. IAEA chief Grossi said Iran informed him on June 13, the day of Israel's first attacks, that it was taking measures to protect its nuclear equipment and materials. While it did not elaborate, he said that suggests it was moved. A Western diplomat involved in the dossier, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said most of the enriched uranium at Fordow would appear to have been moved days in advance of the attacks, "almost as if they knew it was coming". Some experts have said a line of vehicles including trucks visible on satellite imagery outside Fordow before it was hit suggests enriched uranium there was moved elsewhere, though U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said he was unaware of any intelligence suggesting Iran had moved it. Trump has also dismissed such concerns. In an interview due to air on Sunday with Fox News Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures", he insisted the Iranians "didn't move anything." "It's very dangerous to do. It is very heavy - very, very heavy. It's a very hard thing to do," Trump said. "Plus we didn't give much notice because they didn't know we were coming until just, you know, then." The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The State Department referred Reuters to Trump's public remarks. A second Western diplomat said it would be a major challenge to verify the condition of the uranium stockpile, citing a long list of past disputes between the IAEA and Tehran, including Iran's failure to credibly explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites. "It'll be a game of cat and mouse." Iran says it has fulfilled all its obligations towards the watchdog. Before Israel launched its 12-day military campaign aimed at destroying Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities, the IAEA had regular access to Iran's enrichment sites and monitored what was inside them around the clock as part of the 191-nation Non-Proliferation Treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, to which Iran is a party. Now, rubble and ash blur the picture. What's more, Iran has threatened to stop working with the IAEA. Furious at the non-proliferation regime's failure to protect it from strikes many countries see as unlawful, Iran's parliament voted on Wednesday to suspend cooperation. Tehran says a resolution this month passed by the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations paved the way for Israel's attacks, which began the next day, by providing an element of diplomatic cover. The IAEA denies that. Iran has repeatedly denied that it has an active program to develop a nuclear bomb. And U.S. intelligence - dismissed by Trump before the airstrikes - had said there was no evidence Tehran was taking steps toward developing one. However, experts say there is no reason for enriching uranium to 60% for a civilian nuclear program, which can run on less than 5% enrichment. As a party to the NPT, Iran must account for its stock of enriched uranium. The IAEA then has to verify Iran's account by means including inspections, but its powers are limited - it inspects Iran's declared nuclear facilities but cannot carry out snap inspections at undeclared locations. Iran has an unknown number of extra centrifuges stored at locations the U.N. nuclear watchdog is unaware of, the IAEA has said, with which it might be able to set up a new or secret enrichment site. That makes hunting down the material that can be enriched further, particularly that closest to bomb grade, all the more important. "Iran's stockpile of 60% enriched uranium may not have been part of the 'mission' but it is a significant part of the proliferation risk - particularly if centrifuges are unaccounted for," Kelsey Davenport of the Washington-based Arms Control Association said on X on Friday. The IAEA can and does receive intelligence from member states, which include the United States and Israel, but says it takes nothing at face value and independently verifies tip-offs. Having pummelled the sites housing the uranium, Israel and the U.S. are seen as the countries most likely to accuse Iran of hiding it or restarting enrichment, officials say. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office did not respond to a request for comment for this story. U.N. inspectors' futile hunt for large caches of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which preceded the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, showed the enormous difficulty of verifying foreign powers' assertions about hidden stockpiles of material when there is little tangible information to go on. As in Iraq, inspectors could end up chasing shadows. "If the Iranians come clean with the 400 kg of HEU (highly enriched uranium) then the problem is manageable, but if they don't then nobody will ever be sure what happened to it," a third Western diplomat said. The IAEA, which answers to 180 member states, has said it cannot guarantee Iran's nuclear development is entirely peaceful, but has no credible indications of a coordinated weapons program. The U.S. this week backed the IAEA's verification and monitoring work and urged Tehran to ensure its inspectors in the country are safe. It is a long journey from there to accounting for every gram of enriched uranium, the IAEA's standard. The above-ground plant at Natanz, the smaller of the two facilities enriching uranium up to 60 percent, was flattened in the strikes, the IAEA said, suggesting a small portion of Iran's enriched uranium stockpile may have been destroyed. Fordow, Iran's most deeply buried enrichment plant, which was producing the bulk of 60%-enriched uranium, was first seriously hit last weekend when the United States dropped its biggest conventional bombs on it. The damage to its underground halls is unclear. An underground area in Isfahan where much of Iran's most highly enriched uranium was stored was also bombed, causing damage to the tunnel entrances leading to it. The agency has not been able to carry out inspections since Israel's bombing campaign began, leaving the outside world with more questions than answers. Grossi said on Wednesday the conditions at the bombed sites would make it difficult for IAEA inspectors to work there - suggesting it could take time. "There is rubble, there could be unexploded ordnance," he said. Heinonen, the former chief IAEA inspector, said it was vital the agency be transparent in real time about what its inspectors have been able to verify independently, including any uncertainties, and what remained unknown. "Member states can then make their own risk assessments," he said.
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Iran could begin enriching uranium for nuclear bomb 'within months' in WW3 fears
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Scottish Sun
an hour ago
- Scottish Sun
Iran was building warheads ‘capable of blitzing London' as twisted regime raced to have world's biggest missile arsenal
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) IRAN'S twisted regime was attempting to produce a terrifying two-tonne warhead which could obliterate London, Israel has warned. Tehran was said to be trying to build up the world's biggest ballistic missile arsenal to help them launch a global tirade of destruction, according to the Israeli foreign ministry. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 8 Two Iranian ballistic missiles in the sky near Jerusalem at the start of the week Credit: Alamy 8 Footage posted to social media shows the moment an Iranian ballistic missile strikes an apartment building in Beersheba Credit: Twitter 8 The Kermanshah missile facility in Iran was left severely damaged in Israeli strikes Credit: AFP Officials in Tel Aviv said they successfully thwarted Iran's plan to become the largest ballistic missile producer on the planet in tactical airstrikes alongside Donald Trump on June 13. The US struck Iran's nuclear programme and hit key nuke sites which were ordered by Trump who said they had "obliterated" the targets. But Israeli officials, who helped to orchestrate the "bunker buster" bombs with the US, have now revealed they also had a second objective in the weekend strikes. Oren Marmorstein, a spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry said: "We actually acted because of two existential threats. read more in Iran vs Israel SPIES HANGED Iran executes three prisoners accused of spying for Israel in brutal crackdown "One was nuclear, and we acted when we did because Iran was at the 11th hour of being able to build a bomb. But the other was the ballistic threat." Tehran already boasted a concerning number of ballistic weapons prior to the conflict with US intelligence saying they had around 3,000 at their disposal. The latest Israeli intelligence though had pointed towards a much more dire figure emerging if Iran wasn't stopped. They claimed the regime was actively working on increasing production to over 20,000 ballistic missiles. Some even had a payload of one or two tonnes, Marmorstein said. The spokesman detailed the destruction which one missile could cause saying just last week, prior to the agreed ceasefire, four people were killed in the southern Israeli town of Beersheba in a missile strike. Inside Op Red Wedding – Israel's fierce wave of assassinations killing 30 Iran generals in first MINUTES of 12-day war "Imagine if Tehran sent 10,000 of those," Marmorstein added. "That threat was as existential to us as a nuclear bomb. "They were moving into industrial scale and about to become the number one ballistic missile producer in the world. "Some of these are intercontinental, which are not for us." He claimed these would have been able to reach into Europe with capitals such as London, Berlin and Paris all at risk. "They were getting closer and closer, almost to the point of no return," Marmorstein said. Israel managed to wipe out dozens of missiles with more than half of their 300 missile-launchers also destroyed. A strike also targeted the military facility in Yazd which houses Iran's heaviest missile, known as the Khorramshahr. 8 A ballistic missile fired from Iran caused major damage to a residential block in Beersheba last week Credit: Getty 8 Israeli special forces check the remains of a ballistic missile found lying in northern Israel Credit: Reuters 8 Oren Marmorstein, a spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry, said Israel viewed the ballistic missile threat as as dangerous as the nuclear threat Credit: Fox The weapon is regarded as a copy of a North Korean missile carrying a two-ton warhead. The war in the Middle East lasted just 12 days as it quickly turned into a major conflict when Trump decided to strike the Iranian nuclear sites. The attacks helped to end the war with both Israel and Iran quickly declaring they had won the fight - despite Iran suffering a major blow to their nuclear capabilities. Despite a ceasefire being agreed, Trump has said he would "absolutely" consider bombing Iran again if it was ever needed. He told reporters in the White House he would "without question" attack the country if US intelligence pointed towards Iran enriching uranium to concerning levels. It comes as Iran held a funeral for the commanders wiped out in the war. The event was severely plagued by "Death to America" chants and the burning of Israeli flags across the day. Britain can never be safe against the threat of Iran if they aren't stopped By Chief Foreign Reporter, Katie Davis BRITAIN will never be safe until Iran's nuclear scheme is completely wiped out, Israel's ambassador told The Sun. Tzipi Hotovely said Israel did the UK a "huge service" by wiping out the rogue state's efforts to create a nuke weapon. The diplomat said: "The Israeli people know they're facing a very radical enemy like the British people were fighting in the Second World War and that they must get to the point where it's being defeated. The Iranians have proven they have no interest in diplomacy. They were just using diplomacy to keep on running their nuclear programme. "And President Trump kind of lost patience with this type of behaviour. He said it clearly, I don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons. "We gave a chance to diplomacy. We backed up the American diplomatic plan - 60 days expired. "They didn't come to the table. That's what the Prime Minister said, they want to blow up the table, not to sit next to it. "And we are now certain that once this military operation is over, the world, the Middle East, Israel, Europe, everyone will have a safer world. "This is a war to end wars, not to begin wars." 8 Over a million people reportedly lined the streets of Tehran for the funeral of Iranian commanders Credit: Getty
