Israeli embassy in London target of foiled Iranian terror plot
LONDON - The Israeli Embassy in London was the target of a terror plot by five Iranian nationals who were arrested by British police last weekend, according to people familiar with the matter.
The five men were detained on May 3 on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act, in an operation led by the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terror Command. The arrests related to a plot targeting a specific site, the Met said, declining to name the location for 'operational reasons'.
Israel's Embassy in Kensington, west London, was the main target, the people said, with an attack believed to have been imminent before police arrested the suspects.
The Metropolitan Police declined to comment and the Israeli Embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
'Iran in no uncertain terms categorically rejects any involvement in such actions and confirms that we have not been informed of any allegations via proper diplomatic channels,' Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X, adding that Iran was prepared to assist the investigation.
'There is a history of third parties bent on derailing diplomacy and provoking escalation resorting to desperate measures, including false flag operations,' he added, in an apparent reference to ongoing US-Iran talks about Tehran's nuclear programme – a process that Israel has consistently opposed.
In a separate investigation also on May 3 , counter terror police arrested three more Iranian nationals under section 27 of the National Security Act, which permits the police to detain, without a warrant, anyone suspected of involvement in 'foreign power threat activity'.
The Met said the two investigations weren't connected.
In a speech last year, Mr Ken McCallum, director-general of the UK security service MI5, said the agency had responded to 20 potentially lethal plots in Britain since January 2022 that were backed by the Iranian state. BLOOMBERG
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