Counter-terrorism police arrested ten men in north London before dawn on Friday after a long-running investigation into alleged Iranian intelligence surveillance of individuals and locations linked to London’s Jewish community, the second significant counter-espionage operation in the United Kingdom within a single week and one whose timing, coming seven days into the US-Israel military campaign against Iran, senior government officials were careful to characterise as unrelated to the current conflict rather than a response to it.
Detectives from Counter Terrorism Policing London detained four men shortly after 1:00 a.m. at addresses in Barnet and Watford during a pre-planned operation. One man aged 40 and another aged 55 were arrested at addresses in Barnet, a 52-year-old was detained in Watford, and a 22-year-old was arrested in Harrow. Police are searching addresses in Barnet, Wembley, and Watford.
The four principal suspects include one Iranian national and three men who hold dual British-Iranian citizenship, all detained on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service under the National Security Act 2023. Six additional men aged 20 to 49 were arrested at the Harrow address on suspicion of assisting an offender. One of them was also arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer. All ten men have been taken into custody.
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said: “Today’s arrests are part of a long-running investigation and part of our ongoing work to disrupt malign activity where we suspect it.
We understand the public may be concerned, in particular the Jewish community, and as always, I would ask them to remain vigilant and if they see or hear anything that concerns them, then to contact us.” Her characterisation of the investigation as long-running was significant: it indicated that the alleged surveillance predated the US-Israel strikes on Iran that began on February 28, placing the case within the broader pattern of Iranian covert operations in Britain that MI5 has been tracking for years rather than as a reprisal for the current conflict.
The arrests arrived days after a separate counter-espionage operation on Wednesday, in which British counter-terrorism officers arrested three men on suspicion of assisting China’s foreign intelligence service, one of them identified by media as the husband of a sitting Labour MP.
The two operations in the same week are without recent precedent in the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism programme, reflecting what MI5 Director General Ken McCallum described last October as a daily national security threat from both Chinese and Iranian intelligence activities.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy told ITV on Friday: “Iran is the biggest state sponsor of terrorism globally and sadly, that is in effect in our own society as well. Even in the United Kingdom, the Iranian regime poses a direct threat to dissidents and to the Jewish community. Over the last year alone, they have backed more than 20 potentially lethal attacks on UK soil.”
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Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said on X: “The Jewish community and the wider public will understandably be concerned by today’s arrests. We continue to monitor the situation closely.” Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a press conference earlier in the week that the government was reaching out to Jewish and Muslim communities alike and ensuring places of worship had appropriate protective security in place, warning that people would use the Middle East conflict to try to divide British society.
Friday’s arrests are the third significant counter-Iranian intelligence operation in the United Kingdom in under a year. In May 2025, three Iranian men were charged with offences under the National Security Act relating to assisting a foreign intelligence service: Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55, all of London, were accused of conducting surveillance and reconnaissance of UK-based journalists working for Iran International news outlet to enable serious violence to be committed against them. A provisional trial date for that case has been set for October 5. Separately, five men including four Iranians were arrested last year over a suspected plot to target specific premises — British media reported the target was the Israeli embassy — before being released without charge.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism said in response to Friday’s arrests: “The UK may not be acting against Iran but Iran is acting against us. The government’s failure to keep its promise to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has sent the message that support for the brutal Iranian regime and its Jew-hating ideology is perfectly acceptable in Britain. The security services have to be lucky every time: the plotters only need to get lucky once.”
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The British government has repeatedly resisted calls from Jewish community organisations, Conservative MPs, and some of its own backbenchers to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organisation — a step that Israel, Canada, and several other Western countries have already taken.
London hosts the largest Iranian diaspora community in Europe, and successive governments have assessed that a blanket IRGC proscription would complicate diplomatic channels considered useful for intelligence-sharing and backchannel communication. That calculation is now under renewed political pressure.
The statement comes amid longstanding concerns in Britain that networks connected to Iran have used charities and religious organisations to promote political influence. Several UK-based charities have faced investigations in recent years over alleged links to groups aligned with Tehran.
In 2024, the Charity Commission opened a compliance case involving the London-based Dar Alhekma Trust and the Abrar Islamic Foundation following a dossier alleging connections to organisations backed by Iran, which both groups deny.
Britain and 13 allies, including the United States, France, Germany, and Canada, issued a joint warning last year of a surge in Iranian assassination and kidnapping plots targeting diaspora dissidents and Jewish individuals in Western countries. Australia separately accused Iran of directing two antisemitic arson attacks in Sydney and Melbourne in August 2025. Iran has consistently denied all such allegations, describing them as part of a coordinated Western campaign of disinformation.
No charges had been filed against any of the ten men arrested on Friday as of mid-morning. The investigation remains active and ongoing.