Iran among top state backers of life-threatening plots in UK, police say
Iran alongside Russia and China is behind a growing number of life-threatening operations on UK soil including assassination and kidnapping plots carried out by criminal proxies and even teenagers, senior British counter terrorism officers said on Tuesday.
“We are increasingly seeing these three states ... undertaking threat-to-life operations in the United Kingdom,” said Dominic Murphy, who heads London’s Counter Terrorism Command.
Iran, Murphy told reporters, continues “to try and sow violence on the streets of the United Kingdom ... They too are to some extent relying on criminal proxies to do that.”
Vicki Evans, the UK’s Senior National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, said proxies were typically criminals acting “quite often for small amounts of cash,” but also included vulnerable individuals such as disgruntled teenagers.
“We are concerned that they might find themselves in an online environment where they're encouraged or egged on to do something and don't understand what they're being asked to do,” Evans said.
The report highlighted Tehran’s increased willingness to carry out assassinations, espionage, and cyberattacks within the United Kingdom, and calls for a fundamental shift in British strategy toward the Islamic Republic.
Since January 2022, there have been at least 15 attempts at murder or kidnap against British nationals or UK-based individuals, according to the report.
Iran among top state backers of life-threatening plots in UK, police say | Iran International
Defection from within Iran’s armed forces could become a serious threat to the Islamic Republic—but only if defectors are given protection, a clear pathway to safety, and a structure they can trust, experts told Iran International.
“There was a moment—those 12 days of Israeli and US military strikes—where the regime was on the run,” said Michael Pregent, a former US intelligence officer.
“People were watching closely. There was momentum.” But in the absence of a safe haven or real backing, Pregent said, “those who might have defected were left with nowhere to go.”
This renewed focus on potential defections comes amid a social media statement by exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, who says that more than 20,000 members of Iran’s military have contacted his office through a digital registration platform expressing interest in defecting.
While the figure has not been independently verified, it has intensified questions about the loyalty of Iran’s security forces and the conditions under which they might break ranks.
Iran’s track record of retaliation remains one of the most significant obstacles to defection.
“The biggest problem usually” is “how are the defectors going to get their families out and their friends out?” said Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institute.
“The Islamic Republic has a long history of taking hostages who are quite unrelated to the offenses... I think we can assume that in the case of defectors, the Islamic Republic would go out to family and friends," Clawson told Iran International.
Defections are unlikely to gain momentum unless members of the security apparatus believe they have a viable future outside the regime, noted Alireza Nader, a senior Iran analyst.
'Safe zones'
What could shift that equation, according to Pregent, is the creation of safe zones—physical or operational—where defectors can seek protection and regroup.
Drawing on his experience in Iraq, where he worked with tribal leaders and defectors during the US counterinsurgency campaign, he described how trust was built by offering defectors equipment, radio support and armed backing.
That model, he argued, could be adapted to support Iranians who are ready to break with the ruling system.
Trust, he added, depends on action—not words—and on the presence of those “willing to sacrifice their own skin in the game.”
“We’ve seen that with the Israelis... the underground inside of Iran," Pregent added, referring to armed cells who have carried out assassinations and nuclear sabotage in league with Israel. "That’s where the trust is—people that were willing to fight for this, willing to put their lives on the line," Pregent told Iran International.
Insiders helping Israel
Israel’s assassinations of IRGC commander Ali Shadmani and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran make one thing clear: Iranians inside the country are cooperating with Israel. These operations would be impossible without human assets on the ground.
Haniyeh was killed on July 31, 2024, along with his bodyguard, inside a military-run guesthouse in Tehran shortly after attending the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian. The strike, like others before it, demonstrated not only Israel’s superior intelligence-gathering capabilities but also the existence of local informants within sensitive Iranian security and political circles.
When asked how Israel managed to target individuals in their bedrooms in remote parts of Tehran, he replied: "I mean, what would you guess? I think the answer is in the question, and I think it goes back to the original question about how to overcome fear. There are many, many Iranians that are overcoming fear right now. They've overcome fear in the past. They've worked in, in close tandem with forces of good, and they will continue to do so," Yechiel Leiter told Iran International.
Leiter's language—deliberately indirect—nonetheless strongly implies collaboration between Israeli intelligence and Iranian dissidents or insiders.
Legal and diplomatic ambiguity is another deterrent. Potential asylum countries must make clear that not only the defectors, but also their families, would be protected and welcomed. That clarity is missing, both in law and in practice, according to Clawson.
In many cases, intelligence agencies view double agents as more practical and valuable than outright defectors. Rather than extract a source, agencies often persuade them to remain in place and feed intelligence from within, Clawson added.
Nader added that exiled political figures must be judged by action, not intention. Those hoping to gain the trust of Iranians must show they’ve delivered meaningful results—particularly during this moment of regional and domestic upheaval.
Without external support and a clear exit plan, a viable counter-insurgency from within Iran remains unlikely. The regime will continue to maintain its grip so long as those within its ranks see no path out. “That cannot happen if it doesn’t have a safe haven,” said Pregent.
The prehistoric sites of the Khorramabad Valley in Iran, including five caves and one rock shelter, have been added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List.
Located in the Zagros Mountains, the Khorramabad Valley was inscribed as Iran’s 29th World Heritage site on July 10, during the 47th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held in Paris.
Human presence in the valley dates back 63,000 years. The site is described as a key piece of the puzzle in understanding early human evolution and the migration from Africa to Eurasia.
Much of the area remains unexplored, offering potential for future archaeological excavations and discoveries.
Khorramabad Valley is located in Lorestan Province, which boasts over 5,000 historical sites—more than 2,600 of which are nationally registered in Iran.
An artist's rendering of a prehistoric scene at the caves, courtesy of the National Museum of Iran
Fereydoun Biglari, head of the Paleolithic Department at Iran’s National Museum who led excavations at one of the caves underscored the historical importance of the sights, according to remarks cited by Archaeology News magazine.
“All five sites yield strong evidence for Neanderthal occupation and offer valuable insight into their material culture, subsistence strategies, and interactions with early Homo sapiens who migrated to the Zagros around 45,000 years ago,” Biglari said.
Khorramabad was also one of the major cities in western Iran during the Sassanid era. The Falak-ol-Aflak Castle, also known as Shapurkhast Fortress, is a surviving monument from that period and serves as a symbol of the city. The city also served as a capital for the Hazaraspid and Al-e Hasanuyah dynasties.
Iranian Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts also provided an update on the status of Falak-ol-Aflak Castle, saying it is on track to be added to the UNESCO list.
“The UNESCO resolution also referenced the status of Falak-ol-Aflak Castle. The deficiencies previously identified by international experts are being addressed, and with the necessary requirements being met, this prominent fortress is expected to be included alongside the Khorramabad Valley and inscribed as a World Heritage site in next year’s session,” said Reza Salehi Amiri in an interview with state TV on July 10.
The last addition to Iran's World Heritage List came in 2023, when the country’s caravanserais were inscribed.
Tehran has renamed a street honoring the assassin of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat after slain Hezbollah leader, a move that both commemorates Hassan Nasrallah and eliminates a long-standing obstacle to improved ties with Egypt.
“Tehran, as the beating heart of the Islamic world, must reflect its identity in the city’s face,” said Mohammad Hassan Akhtari, head of the Committee to Support the Islamic Revolution of the Palestinian People.
“Naming a street after Hassan Nasrallah symbolizes Tehran’s bond with the resistance movement," he told reporters.
The street, located in District 6 in central Tehran, was initially named after Khalid Islambouli following Sadat’s assassination in 1981, angering the Cairo government for decades.
Egyptian officials had long viewed the gesture as a provocation and a major obstacle to normalization.
Iran hailed Islambouli as a “martyr of the resistance” for his role in killing the Egyptian leader who had signed a peace treaty with Israel.
The decision to rename it after Nasrallah comes less than a year after his death on 27 September 2024, when an Israeli airstrike destroyed Hezbollah’s underground headquarters in Beirut, killing the Iran-backed group’s long-time leader.
Thaw after 45 years
Tehran's decision to change the controversial street name comes more than a month after the Iranian foreign minister’s visit to Cairo, signaling progress toward healing one of the region's deepest rifts, which has lingered from the 1979 Revolution in Iran and Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.
Relations between the Sunni Muslim heavyweight and the Shi'ite theocracy has been in a deep freeze ever since.
Following Araghchi’s June 2 meeting with Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the top Iranian official himself wrote in an Arabic post on X that diplomacy between Iran and Egypt had entered a new phase.
Egypt is a close US ally and maintains official relations with Israel. For Iran, mending the 45-year rift with Egypt could signal a softening of its revolutionary-era, anti-American posture.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini famously called for the Egyptian people to rise up and overthrow Anwar Sadat after he normalized ties with Israel.
As forced deportations of Afghan migrants from Iran escalate, Afghans are pushing a nationwide boycott of Iranian goods in protest.
Activists are urging citizens and business owners to halt the import and purchase of Iranian goods, with some deploying the social media hashtag "Boycott Iranian goods: a national demand".
More than half a million Afghans have been deported from Iran in the weeks after its 12-day conflict with Israel ended.
The Red Cross now warns that as many as one million more could be forced out by year’s end.
“We should not financially support a regime that humiliates, tortures, and discriminates against Afghan migrants,” wrote one Afghan user, Niloofar Yousefi.
“Until this injustice ends, we will raise our voices through this boycott.” She urged Afghan merchants to stop importing Iranian goods altogether.
In 2024, Iran accounted for between a quarter and a third of Afghanistan's $10.8 billion in total imports, World Bank figures show, making it the country’s largest trading partner by value.
Trade figures underline what’s at stake economically for Iran. Between March and June 2025 alone, Tehran exported $520 million in non-oil goods to Afghanistan. Over the course of 2024, that number reached $3.1 billion, placing Afghanistan among Iran’s top five export markets.
In the city of the Afghan city of Herat, a physician, Dr. Alireza Hashemi, announced he would stop prescribing Iranian-made medications in protest of Tehran’s treatment of Afghan nationals.
Another social media user, Nasim Kamgar, posted a video of a young Afghan child describing abuse at the hands of Iranian border guards.
“This is not our right,” she wrote, adding that Taliban policies have left Afghan migrants increasingly vulnerable to mistreatment abroad.
Iranian officials have insisted that only undocumented migrants are being deported, but both Afghan news outlets and international aid groups have reported otherwise.
Multiple cases have surfaced in which migrants with valid visas or residency papers were expelled—some even had their passports and identity cards torn up by Iranian border forces.
With public anger mounting and the boycott movement gaining traction, Iran’s economic ties to Afghanistan now face unprecedented strain—intensifying a rift between the two countries as hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Afghans face the threat of forced return.
Disgraced former Iranian UN envoy Mohammad Jafar Mahallati has resurfaced in Iran, presenting himself as an Oberlin College professor, despite allegations that saw him removed from his position in the US for covering up mass executions and committing sexual misconduct.
The Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA), an Iranian-American advocacy group, found Mahallati in Shiraz, where he is listed as a senior researcher at the Majd Research Center.
His biography on the center’s website claims he is a “full professor of Religious Studies and Peace Studies at Oberlin College”—though the college dismissed him in 2023.
Return under false credentials
In May 2025, Mahallati co-organized and participated in the Sixth Annual Conference on Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Tehran.
He moderated a panel and gave a talk titled “The Complex Nature of Human Conflicts... A Qur’anic Perspective.” The program listed him using his former Oberlin title.
Mahallati was removed from Oberlin after AAIRIA launched a campaign outlining his role in whitewashing the 1988 executions of thousands of political prisoners in Iran.
The group also highlighted his antisemitic and anti-Baha’i rhetoric during his time as a UN envoy, and multiple allegations of sexual abuse, including rape and harassment at Columbia University in the 1990s.
The US Department of Education launched an investigation into Oberlin in 2023 for allegedly tolerating antisemitism on campus.
Following his removal, Oberlin scrubbed his profile from its website.
New platform, familiar faces
Another speaker at the Tehran event was Ali Akbar Mousavi, previously listed as a senior advisor and postdoctoral researcher at George Mason University’s Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution.
His university profile now leads to a "Not Found" error.
The conference listed Mousavi as speaking on “Technology for Peace and Transformation in Conflict Management.”
Iran International contacted George Mason for comment but received no reply.
Lawdan Bazargan, AAIRIA’s director, said: “The Islamic Republic has long weaponized the language of ‘peace’ and ‘friendship’ to sanitize its image while continuing repression and destabilization at home.”
“Figures like Mahallati and Mousavi lend academic legitimacy to this propaganda and should be held accountable," she added. "US institutions shouldn’t allow regime apologists to whitewash crimes as dialogue.”
Academic silence, state rhetoric
In what appears to be a rebranding effort, a 2024 website promoting Mahallati’s writings again lists him as a “full Professor of Religion in Islamic Studies” at Oberlin. The site provides no contact information.
Iran International contacted Oberlin’s VP of communications, Josh Jensen, and chief of staff David Hertz to ask whether the school has warned Iranian institutions or taken steps to stop Mahallati from using its name. No response was received.
Despite a three-year campaign by AAIRIA, Oberlin President Carmen Twillie Ambar and her staff refused to meet with Iranian-American advocates.
Though billed as a peace conference, the University of Tehran event included incendiary rhetoric.
Iranian science minister Hossein Simaee Sarraf called for Israel’s destruction: “It is hoped that... all Muslim nations and people of conscience will unite to overcome this savage and bloodthirsty regime,” he said.
Dr. Charles Randall Paul, founder of the US-based Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, also addressed the conference via Zoom. He did not respond to press inquiries.
Oberlin has largely ignored the Mahallati scandal since his removal. After student journalist Gigi Ewing graduated, the campus paper dropped coverage.
Ewing and her colleagues had earlier published a 2021 editorial titled “Evidence Against Mahallati Irrefutable."