Iran is 'rising threat to Brits inside UK' and 'nuclear threat has increased'

Iran poses a "rising" threat to Britain and its citizens, both inside and outside the UK, a new parliamentary report based on classified intelligence has warned.

The message was contained in a concerning report by Parliament'sIntelligence and Security Committee after they were given access to classified documents and Iranianexperts at British intelligence services.

In the report, the committee's chairman Lord Beamish said: "Iran poses a wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat to the UK, UK nationals and UK interests. Iran has a high appetite for risk when conducting offensive activity and its intelligence services are ferociously well-resourced with significant areas of asymmetric strength.

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"It supplements this with its use of proxy groups - including criminal networks, militant and terrorist organisations, and private cyber actors to provide it with a deniable means of attacking its adversaries with minimal risk of retaliation."

The report also included concerns at what it described as "the sharp increase in the physical threat posed to dissidents and other opponents of the regime who are in the UK given Iran's willingness to use assassination". And it highlighted the importance of dealing with both Iran's nuclear threat and the threat of it carrying out a cyber security attack on the UK.

In the report, Lord Beamish said: "There has been a significant increase in the physical threat posed by Iran to those residing in the UK. It has significantly increased both in pace and with regard to the number of threats. This threat is focused acutely on dissidents and other opponents of the regime. There is also an increased threat against Jewish and Israeli interests in the UK.

"The Iranian Intelligence Services have shown that they are willing and able - often through third-party agents - to attempt assassination within the UK and kidnap from the UK."

The report adds: "The Homeland Security Group told us that the threat of physical attack on individuals in the UK is now 'the greatest level of threat we currently face from Iran' and comparable with the threat posed by Russia." The report said that between the beginning of 2022 and August 2023, there were "at least 15 attempts at murder or kidnap against British nationals or UK-based individuals".

It adds: "Iran does not view attacks on dissident, Jewish and Israeli targets in the UK as attacks on the UK. It rather sees the UK as collateral in its handling of internal matters - i.e. removing perceived enemies of the regime - on UK soil." The 241-page report was secretly presented to the government in April last year, but following delays, said to have been caused by last year's General Election, it has only been made public today after being laid down in Parliament.

It has already led to the designation of Iran under the Enhanced Tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme and it creating a new power of proscription to cover state-backed organisations such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Sources admit the landscape in the Middle East has altered "considerably" since the report's completion in August 2023, less than two months before Hamas' October 7 terror attack on Israel.

But they say the report still provides "essential context and consideration of all elements of the Iranian threat to the UK. And they added "it assesses what the UK Intelligence Community is doing to respond, and what more needs to be done".

The report says Iran has "developed a network of complex relationships with militant and terrorist groups", including Al-Qaeda, Kata'ib Hizbollah in Iraq, Lebanese Hizbollah and Hamas. It adds: "The transactional arrangement between Iran and the senior leadership of Al Qaeda is concerning.

"The Government should use all the tools at its disposal to degrade the relationship between Iran and groups such as Al-Qaeda and Lebanese Hizbollah, including publicly calling out Iran's attempts to protect such terrorist groups". The authors of the report say Iran also wants to build "a deep alliance" with Russia, with the relationship between the two countries becoming "increasingly close".

The report says Iran's leadership have a "deep suspicion" of the UK and consider it to be "a significant adversary, a cunning fox, opposed to the Iranian regime's values and as part of the West to be seeking regime change in Iran". It adds: "Iran's main strategic objectives towards the UK include reducing the UK's military presence in the region, undermining the UK's relationships with the US and Israel, weakening the UK's security relationships in the Middle East and silencing criticism of Iran [both] from the UK directly or from those residing in the UK. The national security threat from Iran requires a longer-term view and resourcing must be consistent with that threat."