Paris condemns long sentences on spy charges for French couple in Iran

"Iran's autocratic regime is ... frantically trying to silence its opponents around the world, including in the UK," he told reporters in a briefing.

"2025 has required us to grow our counter Iran effort," McCallum added. "MI5 has tracked more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots in just the one year since I last stood at this podium. The UK was among the first to call out this wave of Iranian transnational aggression. But we're far from alone."

The British government last month said it was determined to frustrate what it called escalating Iranian threats to people on UK soil, citing cyberattacks and the use of criminal proxies to carry out attacks.

Its statement came after a July 10 Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee on Iran which said Iran poses one of the gravest state-based threats to British national security, on par those from Russia and China.

"State threats are escalating. In the last year, we've seen a 35% increase in the number of individuals we're investigating for involvement in state threat activity," McCallum added, mentioning Russia and China as other key adversaries.

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a presentation to President Donald Trump and reporters in the White House on Wednesday that US law enforcement had stepped up arrests for Iran-backed espionage operations.

"The national security mission, Mr. President, under your leadership has never been stronger. We have gone after espionage activities against our main counterparts in China, Russia and Iran," he said.

"(On) Iran, we have had a 50% increase again in espionage cases."

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made the remarks in an interview with Uganda’s BBEG media outlet on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement foreign ministers’ meeting in Kampala.

He said Iran remained committed to strengthening economic partnerships among member states.

“We welcome unity and economic partnerships among Non-Aligned Movement countries to promote effective diplomacy and sustainable development within our group. This solidarity is vital for all our partners,” Araghchi said.

Iran, he added, had significant capacity to share expertise with developing nations in areas such as oil and gas and called for greater South-South cooperation.

The Non-Aligned Movement was founded during the Cold War by states seeking to avoid alignment with either the US or Soviet blocs.

NAM includes around 120 member countries and focuses on issues such as sovereignty, economic development, social justice and mutual cooperation.

Iran became a NAM member in 1961 and has at times held its presidency.

A day earlier, Araghchi had urged member states to reject what he described as “invalid” attempts by the United States and the three European countries known as the E3 — Britain, France and Germany — to reimpose United Nations sanctions on Iran.

He called the move “groundless and illegitimate” speaking during the 19th Ministerial Meeting of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Kampala on Wednesday.

“This stance not only renews our joint dedication to NAM’s core values but also sends a loud and clear message to the world that independent nations, united in solidarity and purposeful resolve, will not bow to bullying or coercive pressures,” he said.

The E3 triggered the reimposition of international sanctions on Iran last month, accusing Tehran of spurning diplomacy and nuclear inspections.

Russia and China sought to block the move at the UN Security Council on September 26 not enough member states supported their bid and the sanctions were reimposed the following day.

“While Iran has not binned or ended discussions with the IAEA on implementing the Cairo access deal, I understand it still hasn’t issued reports or given dates for issuing reports on damaged sites and stockpile. Nor of course permitted access to damaged sites,” Laurence Norman wrote on X. He said IAEA chief Rafael Grossi “is for now being given more space” but continues to press Tehran to advance on these steps.

The comments come as Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization chief Mohammad Eslami said on Wednesday that “no IAEA inspector is currently in the country.” Eslami said only two visits had been allowed since the June airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities — to Bushehr and Tehran reactors — both cleared by the Supreme National Security Council.

The Cairo deal, reached in September between Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Grossi, was meant to restore limited cooperation after the strikes. It outlined “practical modalities” for monitoring declared nuclear sites, but Iranian officials warned the accord could collapse if UN sanctions were reinstated. Western governments triggered the snapback of those sanctions in late September, citing Iran’s failure to meet its obligations.

Eslami said Iran is not considering leaving the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but faulted the IAEA for failing to condemn the US and Israeli attacks. “The agency should have condemned the attack on Iran’s nuclear sites, but it did not,” he said, adding that Iran’s cooperation is now governed by a new parliamentary law limiting access.

Norman said the IAEA has so far avoided demanding immediate access to a specific site to prevent a direct refusal by Tehran, “risking a crisis.” He added that Iran “could play its old game of offering something ahead of [the] November IAEA board” but warned that without progress, “we could be running into another significant moment in November.”

The exhibition, organized by the US-based advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), featured a Shahed-136 drone recovered in Ukraine and was intended, according to the group, to highlight Tehran’s role in aiding Moscow’s military campaign. Sikorski attended the event during a visit to London for meetings with British officials.

Earlier that day, Sikorski told reporters that a recent Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace was “tactically stupid and counterproductive,” saying it had only strengthened Western resolve against Moscow. The Polish minister said the drones appeared to have been launched deliberately from Russia and coordinated with Belarus.

Mahmoud Heidari, the Foreign Ministry’s director general for Mediterranean and Eastern European affairs, summoned Polish Chargé d’Affaires Marcin Wilczek and conveyed what he called Tehran’s “strong protest” over the London event. Heidari rejected what he described as “baseless and repetitive accusations” about Iran’s drone program and expressed regret over Sikorski’s involvement.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the move to exhibit the drone violated diplomatic norms and repeated politically motivated allegations about Iran’s role in the Ukraine conflict.

Iran denies supplying drones for use in the war, saying it sold a limited number to Russia before the invasion began. Western governments and Ukraine say Shahed-type drones, designed in Iran and now produced in Russia under the name Geran, have become central to Moscow’s air assaults. The Financial Times reported in July that the modified drones have tripled their success rate in hitting targets.

Polish officials have not publicly commented on the summons, but Warsaw has cooperated with UANI and Ukrainian forces in transferring a similar drone to the United States earlier this year for display at a political conference attended by US President Donald Trump.

Detainees in the notorious lockup outside Tehran rejected their food rations for the third consecutive day, sources told Iran International.

Several inmates fainted on the third day of the strike, according to videos from inside the prison shared online.

"The Islamic Republic is carrying out a massacre in this prison," one inmate said in a video sent to Iran International, describing the continuation of the collective hunger strike in protest against death sentences.

The strike comes as Iran has executed at least 1,172 people this year, according to the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran.

The protests began on Monday in wards 1 and 2 after the transfer of a group of prisoners to solitary confinement.

At least 19 prisoners had been moved to solitary confinement pending their execution this week, 11 of them on drug-related charges and three on murder convictions, according to US-based rights group Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

The prison has seen a sharp rise in executions in recent weeks, according to HRANA.

'We will all be killed'

Prisoners in Ward 4 issued a statement describing the daily transfer of their cellmates to solitary confinement, saying they have “no choice left but to protest and go on strike.”

“There is not a single day when our cellmates are not taken to solitary confinement for execution. If we are left alone after these protests, we will all be killed,” the statement added.

Death-row inmates at the prison, in a separate statement published on Iranian rights activist Golrokh Iraee’s X page, said nearly 1,500 prisoners were on strike and called on the public to support their cause and gather outside the prison to protest the rising number of executions.

"These are the most agonizing moments of our lives and those of our families — suffering that has gone on for years. This situation has become unbearable for us," the statement said.

"Our only refuge as prisoners is you, the dear people of Iran. Execution is not our right... Take action against executions in Iran. Raise your voices. Gather outside the prisons and do not let them execute prisoners," it added.

Five executed in one day

Iran’s judiciary-affiliated Mizan News Agency on Wednesday said that three men — Amirreza Ghobadi, Majid Hatami, and Sajjad Hatami — were executed at Ghezel Hesar prison after being convicted of moharebeh (enmity against God) through armed robbery.

HRANA reported that two others convicted of murder were also executed on Wednesday in the same facility.

The five were among at least 19 inmates transferred to solitary confinement for execution.

One prisoner sentenced to death for the murder of Amir Mohammad Khaleghi, a University of Tehran student, was returned to his ward after the victim’s family granted a two-month reprieve.

There has been no information on the fate of the remaining prisoners transferred to solitary confinement.

Families join protest outside prison

On Tuesday night, families of death-row inmates gathered outside Ghezel Hesar Prison, holding photographs of their loved ones and chanting “do not execute” and “immediate abolition of the death penalty.”

The protest coincided with the No to Execution Tuesdays campaign.

The campaign entered its 90th week this Tuesday, with prisoners in 52 prisons across Iran joining the hunger strike.

The No to Execution Tuesdays campaign began in January 2024, launched by political prisoners in the prison to protest the rising number of executions across the country.

The initiative quickly gained momentum, spreading to dozens of prisons in Iran, including the women’s ward at Evin Prison, where inmates joined the weekly hunger strikes and issued statements calling for the abolition of the death penalty.

Ghezel Hesar’s record of executions

Located in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, Ghezel Hesar is one of Iran’s largest and most notorious detention centers, where executions are routinely carried out.

In a report marking the World Day Against the Death Penalty last week, HRANA said at least 1,537 people were executed in Iran between October 2024 and October 2025, including 183 in Ghezel Hesar — the highest number recorded in any prison in the country.