Latest news with #IntelligenceAndSecurityCommittee
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Iran Threat to Dissidents in UK on the Rise, Lawmakers Say
The threat posed by Iran to dissidents living in the UK has significantly increased in recent years, according to an influential panel of lawmakers who urged the British government to bolster cyber resilience and espionage capacity. From 2022 to August 2023, there were at least 15 attempts to murder or kidnap British nationals or UK-based individuals, Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee warned Thursday in a key report. The panel warned that the risk of Iran carrying out physical attacks on individuals in Britain is now at its greatest level ever, and is comparable to the threat posed by Russia.
New York Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
U.K. Faces Rising Threat From Iranian Plots, Intelligence Committee Says
Britain faces a rising threat from Iranian espionage and assassination squads, a parliamentary intelligence committee said on Thursday, in a report that also warned of a growing risk from Iran to Jewish and Israeli targets on British soil. The Intelligence and Security Committee is made up of nine elected and unelected members of Parliament, and scrutinizes the work of Britain's secret services. It has access to senior figures in the intelligence world and to classified information. The report published Thursday, based on two years of interviews with British intelligence officers and classified documents, described a sharp increase in the physical threat posed to Iranian dissidents living in Britain. It said there had been at least 15 attempts to murder or kidnap British nationals or individuals based in Britain since the beginning of 2022. The committee finished taking evidence on the Iranian threat in 2023 but even then — before tensions heightened to their current level in the Middle East — it identified an increased risk to some Jewish and Israeli organizations in Britain. MI5 was quoted in the report as saying this was particularly the case 'where those individuals or targets are seen as undermining the Iranian regime.' The report said that Iran did not view attacks on Iranian dissidents, and Jewish and Israeli targets in Britain as attacks on Britain. 'It rather sees the U.K. as collateral in its handling of internal matters,' the report said. 'We encourage the government and its international partners to make it clear to Iran — at every opportunity — that such attacks would indeed constitute an attack on the U.K. and would receive the appropriate response.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
UK faces 'persistent and unpredictable threat' from Iran, intelligence report warns
LONDON — A U.K. intelligence committee said Thursday that Iran has significantly increased its physical threat to people on British soil since 2022. Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee said Thursday that the danger posed to Iranian dissidents and Jewish and Israeli interests was on par with the threat from Russia.
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Iran Threat to Dissidents in UK Has Jumped, Lawmaker Panel Says
The threat posed by Iran to dissidents living in the UK has significantly increased in recent years, according to an influential panel of lawmakers who urged the British government to bolster cyber resilience and espionage capacity. From 2022 to August 2023, there were at least 15 attempts to murder or kidnap British nationals or UK-based individuals, Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee warned Thursday in a key report. The panel warned that the risk of Iran carrying out physical attacks on individuals in Britain is now at its greatest level ever, and is comparable to the threat posed by Russia.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Physical threat of attacks from Iran on people living in UK has ‘increased significantly', watchdog warns
The threat of physical attacks by Iran on people living in the UK has increased "significantly" since 2022, Parliament's intelligence watchdog has warned. In a report published on Thursday, Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee described the threat from Iran as "persistent" and "unpredictable". The committee found the "physical threat" from Iran had "significantly increased", focused on Iranian dissidents and Jewish and Israeli interests, and was now "comparable with the threat posed by Russia". It also warned that the nuclear threat from Iran had increased since the US withdrew from a key international agreement in 2018, arguing that de-escalation "must be a priority". The report from the nine-member committee, which scrutinises the work of Britain's intelligence agencies, only covers the period up to August 2023 and publication was delayed by last year's election. Between the beginning of 2022 and the end of the committee's evidence-gathering in August 2023, the report found there had been at least 15 attempts at murder or kidnap against British nationals or UK residents. The committee urged the Government to make clear to Tehran that such attempts would "constitute an attack on the UK and would receive the appropriate response". Committee chairman Lord Beamish said: "Iran poses a wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat to the UK, UK nationals and UK interests". Describing Iran's "high appetite for risk when conducting offensive activity", he added: "As the committee was told, Iran is there across the full spectrum of all the kinds of threats we have to be concerned with." His committee also recommended that the Government consider whether it was "legally possible and practicable" to proscribe Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation and make a full statement to Parliament on the issue. Ministers have faced calls in recent years to ban the IRGC, but the committee recognised there were "complexities inherent" in such a decision. Since August 2023, the international picture has changed with the outbreak of war following Hamas 's attack on Israel in October of that year. The war has seen Iranian proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah weakened, while last month the US and Israel carried out air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities over concerns Tehran was close to developing a nuclear weapon. But the committee insisted that, despite these changes, its recommendations remained "relevant". The committee warned that, while Iran had neither developed a nuclear weapon nor decided to produce one by August 2023, it had taken steps towards that goal in recent years. It found that Iran had been "broadly compliant" with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that limited its nuclear ambitions. But since the US under Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018, the threat of a nuclear Iran had increased and Tehran "had the capability to arm in a relatively short period". It also warned that the UK remained a target for Iranian espionage, which it found was "narrower in scope and scale" and "less sophisticated" than the threat from Russia and China. And while Iran had engaged in political interference activity, it said this had had "a negligible effect". But the report cautioned that Iran-backed cultural and educational centres such as the Islamic Centre of England could be being used to "promote violent and extremist ideology". The committee said it was also "essential" to "raise the resilience bar" on cybersecurity across the UK in the face of Iran's willingness to carry out digital attacks. Regarding the Government's response to the Iranian threat, the committee warned that policy had "suffered from a focus on crisis management" over Iran's nuclear programme and lacked "longer-term thinking". It also criticised a "lack of Iran-specific expertise", saying there was "seemingly no interest in building a future pipeline of specialists". One witness told the committee: "If you have people running policy in the Foreign Office who don't speak a word of Persian, then that is a fat lot of good." The committee also noted that the UK had sanctioned 508 individuals and 1,189 individuals relating to Iran by August 2023, but urged the Government to reconsider whether sanctions "will in practice deliver behavioural change or in fact unhelpfully push Iran towards China". But it welcomed the decision to place Iran in the "enhanced tier" of the new Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, placing extra burdens on people acting on Tehran's behalf in the UK.
