UK Warned of Growing Threat from Iran: Report

Iran poses a wide-ranging, persistent, and unpredictable threat to the UK, UK nationals, and UK interests, according to Lord Beamish, committee chair.

The committee overseeing Britain's spy agencies has expressed concern over the increase in physical threats against opponents of the Iranian regime in the UK. The inquiry also examined Iranian state assassinations, kidnap, espionage, cyber attacks, and the country's nuclear program.

Parliament's intelligence and security committee has warned that the UK faces a rising and unpredictable threat from Iran. The committee emphasized Iran's high risk appetite in offensive activities and its well-resourced intelligence services with significant asymmetric strengths.

The government has been criticized for focusing on crisis management and fire-fighting with Iran, neglecting other threats. The committee stressed the need for more resources and a long-term approach to counter the national security threat from Iran.

While Iran's activities may be less strategic compared to Russia and China, the committee highlighted Iran's persistent and unpredictable threat to UK national security. The physical threat to individuals in the UK, especially dissidents and opponents of the Iranian regime, has significantly increased since the beginning of 2022.

There have been at least 15 murder or kidnap attempts against British nationals or UK-based individuals in 2022. The committee noted that Iran does not consider attacks on dissidents, Jewish, and Israeli targets in the UK as attacks on the UK but rather as collateral in handling internal matters.