US and NATO allies warn of increasing Iranian threats in Europe, North America
'We are united in our opposition to the attempts of Iranian intelligence services to kill, kidnap, and harass people in Europe and North America in clear violation of our sovereignty,' the joint statement released on Thursday said.
'These services are increasingly collaborating with international criminal organizations to target journalists, dissidents, Jewish citizens, and current and former officials in Europe and North America,' it said. 'This is unacceptable.'
The joint statement was signed by NATO members Albania, Belgium, Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United States. The only non-NATO member to sign was Austria, headquarters of the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
The statement said that any such attacks would be considered 'violations of our sovereignty' and the governments committed to working together to foil any plots while calling on Iran 'to immediately put an end to such illegal activities in our respective territories.'
The statement did not identify any particular attack, although the U.S. and others have warned for many years of Iranian-sponsored plots on European and U.S. soil.
British intelligence officials have repeatedly warned of the growing scale of Tehran-backed plots in Britain. Three alleged Iranian spies currently face charges that they conducted surveillance on and plotted violence against U.K.-based journalists for an Iranian news outlet.
Earlier this month Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee said 'Iran poses a wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat to the U.K.'
In early July, German prosecutors announced that a man suspected of gathering information on 'Jewish locations and people in Berlin for Iranian intelligence, possibly with a view to attacks, had been arrested in Denmark. They didn't elaborate.
Despite the ongoing threat, the Trump administration earlier this year rescinded government-funded protection for several former officials from President Donald Trump's first term.
That protection had been provided and repeatedly extended during the Biden administration due to threats from Iran against former national security adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Iran envoy Brian Hook and a number of military officers.
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BSALIM, Lebanon -- George Bezdjian remembers searching for his daughter, Jessica, after a massive explosion at Beirut's port five years ago. He found her at the St. Georges Hospital where she worked as a nurse. The hospital was in the path of the blast and was heavily damaged. He found his daughter lying on the floor as her colleagues tried to revive her. They weren't able to save her. She was one of four medical staff killed there. 'I started telling God that living for 60 years is more than enough. If you're going to take someone from the family, take me and leave her alive,' he told The Associated Press from his home in Bsalim, some 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) away from the port. He sat in a corner where he put up portraits of Jessica next to burning incense to honor her. 'I begged him, but he didn't reply to me.' The Aug. 4, 2020 blast in Beirut's port tore through the Lebanese capital after hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate detonated in a warehouse. 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He hopes that some European suspects can be questioned about the shipment of ammonium nitrate and the vessel carrying them that ended up in the Beirut Port. Despite the malaise across much of the troubled country, Kayan Tlais, brother of port supervisor Mohammad Tlais who was killed in the blast, is hopeful that the indictment will see the light of day. He says he's encouraged by Bitar's tenacity and Lebanon's new leadership. 'We do have judges with integrity,' he said. 'The president, prime minister, and all those who came and were voted in do give us hope … they are all the right people in the right place.' The port and the surrounding Beirut neighborhoods that were leveled in the deadly blast appear functional again, but there are still scars. The most visible are what's left standing of the mammoth grain silos at the port, which withstood the force of the blast but later partly collapsed in 2022 after a series of fires. Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh Sunday classified them as historical monuments. There was no centralized effort by the cash-strapped Lebanese government to rebuild the surrounding neighborhoods. An initiative by the World Bank, Europe and United Nations to fund recovery projects was slow to kick off, while larger reconstruction projects were contingent on reforms that never came. Many family and business owners fixed their damaged property out of pocket or reached out to charities and grassroots initiatives. A 2022 survey by the Beirut Urban Lab, a research center at the American University of Beirut, found that 60% to 80% of apartments and businesses damaged in the blast had been repaired. 'This was a reconstruction primarily driven by nonprofits and funded by diaspora streams,' said Mona Harb, a professor of urban studies and politics at AUB and co-founder of the research center. But regardless of how much of the city is rebuilt and through what means, Aug. 4 will always be a 'dark day of sadness,' says Bezdjian. All that matters to him is the indictment and to find who the perpetrators are. He tries to stay calm, but struggles to control how he feels.
