Last week, the head of Britain’s domestic intelligence service (MI5), Ken McCallum, revealed that Iran has become the UK’s biggest security threat after Russia.MI5 has thwarted more than 20 Iranian-backed plots and arrested over 50 people connected to them in the last year and a half.Many of the attacks have targeted the Jewish community , Iranian journalists , and military installations . Last March, masked individuals burned four ambulances belonging to a private emergency service in London’s Golders Green Jewish neighborhood. Although four young men were arrested, counterterrorism police and MI5 are continuing to investigate the attack.

Iran no longer sends traditional spies, but instead seeks out vulnerable individuals , people willing to sell themselves for money, from military personnel to common criminals.“This is becoming increasingly common in the UK.I don’t know if it’s the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) or Iranian intelligence services, but they are paying these people to commit acts of terrorism .There is no doubt about it,” Lieutenant Colonel Crawford told this newspaper.In 2023, Daniel Abed Khalife , a 22-year-old former British soldier of Iranian descent, was arrested on charges of collecting sensitive information from the British Armed Forces, including the names of military personnel, for Iranian intelligence services.