US, Europe condemn Iranian intelligence threats on Western soil
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel assemble at a military parade in this file photo.
The United States and thirteen allied countries have accused Iran of plotting to kill, kidnap and intimidate individuals in Europe and North America, citing violations of sovereignty and links to international criminal networks.
“These services are increasingly collaborating with international criminal organizations to target journalists, dissidents, Jewish citizens, and current and former officials,” the US State Department said in a joint statement with European countries.
They included the United Kingdom, Albania, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.
The governments called on Iranian authorities to immediately halt the activities and pledged to work together to prevent further threats.
On Monday, a Belgian lawmaker of Iranian descent, Darya Safai said the European country's police warned her of an Iranian plot to abduct her via Turkey after she backed labeling the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group.
Earlier this month, British counter terrorism police said 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.
Additionally, the European Union sanctioned an Iran-linked network over their alleged role in assassination plots and enforced disappearances of dissidents abroad, including on European soil.
Since January 2022, there have been at least 15 attempts at murder or kidnap against British nationals or UK-based individuals, according to a report by UK Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) this month.
Iran has previously been accused of involvement in the kidnapping and killing of foreign nationals abroad.
In 2020, German-Iranian dissident Jamshid Sharmahd was kidnapped by Iranian operatives from Dubai and forcibly taken to Iran via Oman. He was sentenced to death and executed in what Amnesty called a "grossly unfair trial" in 2023.
Iran also abducted dissident journalist Rouhollah Zam from Iraq after luring him to leave Paris for the Arab country in September 2019. He was later sentenced to death and executed in Iran in 2021.
Iran has told European powers it may withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if UN sanctions are reimposed, Western diplomats told Iran International after last week’s talks in Istanbul.
The message was conveyed during a closed-door meeting last week between Iranian officials and representatives from France, Germany and Britain, known collectively as the E3. The session marked the first formal nuclear discussions since last month’s Israeli and US strikes on Iranian territory.
According to one diplomat present at the meeting, Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht Ravanchi said any withdrawal from the treaty should not be interpreted as a step toward building nuclear weapons.
Officials expect sanctions to return
A separate source inside President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government told Iran International that senior Iranian officials have concluded that snapback sanctions under UN Security Council Resolution 2231 are likely and that Tehran must be ready to respond.
Under the 2015 nuclear deal, the snapback mechanism allows a participant to reimpose UN sanctions if Iran is found to be in serious non-compliance. France has recently warned that it will push for global embargoes unless a broader agreement is reached by late August.
Tehran rejects European authority on sanctions
Iran has rejected the legitimacy of any attempt by the E3 to invoke the snapback clause. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said earlier this week that Britain, France and Germany have no legal standing to trigger the measure and had “marginalized themselves” through their support for Israel and the United States during recent military action.
Baghaei also said Tehran remains opposed to extending Resolution 2231 beyond its scheduled expiration in October.
Talks confined to nuclear file, Iran says
Iranian officials insist that the Istanbul talks were limited to nuclear and sanctions-related issues. Baghaei said no other topics were raised and warned that any attempt to expand the agenda would not be accepted.
“These talks have a clear and limited focus: the lifting of sanctions and matters related to the nuclear program,” he said during his weekly press briefing.
Iran will not return to nuclear negotiations unless the United States agrees to provide compensation for damages sustained during last month’s war, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the Financial Times.
"They should explain why they attacked us in the middle of... negotiations, and they have to ensure that they are not going to repeat that," Araghchi said in an interview published on Thursday.
The official added that the US must take responsibility for striking Iran during ongoing diplomatic exchanges and that talks cannot resume without financial redress.
Iran confirms new enrichment plant near Isfahan was hit
A third enrichment facility near Isfahan was struck during last month’s conflict, Araghchi told FT, marking the first time Tehran has publicly acknowledged the site was targeted.
Araghchi said the plant had been prepared for activation in response to a formal censure by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors, which criticized Iran’s lack of cooperation.
“As far as I know, the preparations were made, but it was not active when it was attacked,” he said.
The site was hit as part of a broader US operation that, two days before a ceasefire, targeted Iran’s main enrichment centers at Fordow and Natanz and struck multiple facilities in Isfahan.
‘Road to negotiation is narrow’
Araghchi said he has been in contact with US envoy Steve Witkoff and that the two sides have exchanged messages before, during and after the war. He described the path to talks as narrow but not closed.
“I need to convince my hierarchy that if we go for negotiation, the other side is coming with real determination for a win-win deal,” he said. But he added that Tehran requires confidence-building measures before proceeding, including financial compensation and security assurances.
Araghchi repeated Iran’s rejection of US demands for “zero enrichment” and said Tehran would not abandon its rights under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. He said Iran still retains the knowledge and technical capability to resume high-level enrichment if needed.
Talks with IAEA expected next month
Though Iran suspended cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency after the war, Araghchi said Tehran expects to hold technical talks with the agency in the coming weeks to discuss a “new modality of cooperation.” He said the talks would not involve inspections.
Western officials say Iran’s nuclear infrastructure was heavily damaged but not eliminated, and that a significant stockpile of highly enriched uranium may remain.
Warning to Europe over snapback
Araghchi also warned the UK, France and Germany that any move to trigger the UN snapback mechanism, which would restore sanctions lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal, would end Iran’s talks with them.
“If they do snapback, that means that this is the end of the road for them,” he said. “With the Europeans, there is no reason right now to negotiate because they cannot lift sanctions, they cannot do anything.”
The US said it remains open to direct talks with Iran but reaffirmed its maximum pressure strategy this week by announcing new sanctions on an Iranian oil shipping network.
A British couple held in solitary confinement in Iran since January on espionage charges was beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with execution, a source familiar with the matter told Iran International.
Lindsay and Craig Foreman were recently moved to the Gharchak Women’s Prison and the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary, added the source familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity citing security concerns.
The couple had been held by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence for the past seven months.
According to the source, the couple were subjected to torture including sleep depravation, beating and threats of execution by security agents seeking to extract confessions but have maintained their innocence.
The couple, both in their 50s, entered Iran from Armenia during a motorcycle world tour. After visiting Tabriz, Tehran and Isfahan, they planned to travel to Kerman.
On January 4, 2025, they were arrested on their way to city of Kerman and charged with spying. Britain has rejected the charges and demanded their release.
The UK foreign office said the couple was receiving consular assistance in response to a request for comment by Iran International.
“We are deeply concerned by reports that two British nationals have been charged with espionage in Iran. We continue to raise this case directly with the Iranian authorities," it said in a statement.
“We are providing them with consular assistance and remain in close contact with their family members.”
Iran has long detained and convicted foreign nationals in a bid for to gain financial or political concessions from foreign powers.
Tehran has consistently denied that the detentions are politically motivated.
Political prisoners at Iran's Ghezel Hesar prison have launched a hunger strike in response to a violent raid by guards and their transfer to solitary confinement, a source told Iran International on Wednesday.
On July 26, security forces raided Unit 4 of Ghezel Hesar prison in the town of Karaj, which houses political prisoners, to suppress detainees involved in a campaign against the death penalty.
Since the raid, families of about 20 prisoners have raised concerns about their whereabouts and filed petitions and requests for information.
A source familiar with the situation who declined to be named for security reasons told Iran International that the prisoners were beaten before being placed in solitary confinement. In protest, they launched a collective hunger strike.
The raid targeted approximately 25 prisoners who had participated in a campaign known as “No to Execution Tuesdays.”
The campaign began on January last year, when political prisoners in the women’s ward of Tehran’s Evin Prison started holding weekly hunger strikes every Tuesday to protest the rising number of executions.
Two men accused of belonging to the outlawed Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) opposition group were executed on July 26.
The executions of Behrouz Ehsani-Eslamlou and Mehdi Hassani were carried out in Evin Prison, where they had been held since their arrest. Both were convicted in September 2024 by a Tehran revolutionary court on a range of national security charges.
Iran is one of the most aggressive state actors targeting individuals in the United Kingdom through transnational repression, according to a new parliamentary report.
The inquiry alleged Tehran’s intelligence services have orchestrated dozens of operations to surveil, intimidate, or physically harm UK-based dissidents, journalists, and other perceived critics.
Security agencies have investigated more than 20 credible threats to life linked to Iran since 2022.
“Iran represents one of the highest kidnap and assassination state threats to the UK, with the Homeland Security Group describing the threat of physical attack on individuals in the UK as the greatest level of threat we currently face from Iran,” according to the report released this week.
The tactics include assassination plots, stalking, digital hacking, threats to family members, online abuse, and coordinated smear campaigns.
One key target has been Iran International, a London-based Persian-language broadcaster.
British interior minister Yvette Cooper said in May that Iran posed an "unacceptable threat" to domestic security after authorities charged three Iranian nationals under a national security law following a major counter-terrorism investigation.
Three of the Iranian nationals were later charged with offences under the National Security Act, accused of acting on behalf of Iran’s intelligence service and carried out surveillance targeting Iran International journalists.
Broader strategy of coercion
The report warns of a broader strategy of coercion extending beyond direct threats. Iranian-linked cultural and religious centers in the UK are allegedly being used to gather intelligence on the Iranian diaspora and promote the interests of Tehran.
Kasra Aarabi, director of research on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) at US-based advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), points to what he calls a state-run infiltration network.
"Charities, mosques, academic institutions and cultural centers consistently carried out IRGC-linked activities on its premises,” including direct contact with some of “the most radical and extremist commanders of the IRGC.”
“The failure to address this issue is putting the UK’s national security and British lives at risk,” he told Iran International.
Journalists and women most targeted
Journalists covering Iran remain especially vulnerable, with Iran International and BBC Persian staff facing asset freezes, defamation campaigns, and threats to their families still living in Iran.
The Islamic Republic’s targeting of journalists reflects its fear of independent reporting, UK Director of Reporters Without Borders Fiona O’Brien told Iran International.
“If you're going to go to that length to try and shut something down, to try and silence people ... you must feel very threatened by that kind of information,” she said.
Female journalists reporting on protests and human rights violations have been targeted with gendered abuse, including threats of sexual violence.
The inquiry also highlights the regime’s evolving tactics, including AI-generated deepfake pornography, doctored images, and fabricated narratives used to discredit and silence.
"Impacts extend far beyond those directly targeted, creating a broader ‘chilling effect’ on entire communities and undermining fundamental rights such as freedom of expression, assembly, and association,” the committee said.
Intelligence resources stretched
The fear can be used as a method to overwhelm a country’s security apparatus.
Dr. Omid Shams, a UK-based human rights lawyer of Iranian origin, said the Islamic Republic has shifted from high-level, sophisticated operations to more chaotic, diffuse strategies that are harder for security agencies to detect.
Rather than relying solely on trained agents, Tehran increasingly uses local criminal gangs and petty criminals to carry out lower-level attacks.
“The goal,” Shams said, “is to stretch intelligence resources so thin that authorities are forced to either limit dissidents’ activities or negotiate indirectly with Iran to reduce pressure.”
UK policy still catching up
Despite the scope of the threat, the UK government has yet to formally define transnational repression in law or develop a strategy for addressing it, according to the committee, which urged the government to create a legal definition, train police, support victims, and systematically track these incidents.
Iran — alongside Russia — has been placed under the “enhanced tier” of the UK’s Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, requiring those acting on Tehran’s behalf to declare their activities. The report also calls for coordinated international pressure through the United Nations and INTERPOL.
