Over 550 UK lawmakers urge proscription of Iran's IRGC as terrorist group

The men — Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 56 — were arrested at their homes in London on May 3 and charged on Friday.

All three are accused of engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service between August 14, 2024 and February 16, 2025, in breach of Section 3 of the National Security Act 2023.

The foreign state involved is Iran, police said.

Surveillance linked to Iran International journalists

According to the Crown Prosecution Service, the men carried out surveillance and reconnaissance targeting journalists associated with Iran International.

"Examination of their phones revealed that from the 14th August 2024 they had been engaged in carrying out surveillance with a view to locating journalists associated with Iran International," read the statement by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Iran International is a Persian-language TV news network that broadcasts 24/7 and has a strong following in Iran, despite government efforts to restrict access to the internet and satellite signals. Tehan has labelled it a terrorist organisation.

Phones seized during the arrests allegedly contained satellite images and mobile phone videos of buildings and streets in London.

Sepahvand faces an additional charge of conducting reconnaissance with the intention of committing acts of serious violence in the UK. Javadi Manesh and Noori are charged with similar conduct intended to facilitate serious violence by others.

“These are extremely serious charges under the National Security Act,” said Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command. “Detectives have been working around the clock and we have worked closely with colleagues in the CPS to reach this point.”

All three men have been remanded in custody and appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday.

Iran International has previously been the subject of threats and attacks. In 2023, a man was convicted under terrorism laws after filming outside its premises, and in 2024, Pouria Zeraati, the television host of the "Last Word" program on Iran International was stabbed in London.

UK Minister: Iran must be held to account for its actions

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on Saturday confirmed Iran was the foreign state referred to in the charges.

“I want to thank the police and security services for their continuing work on this very serious investigation, and for their immense dedication to protecting our national security and the safety of our communities,” she said in a statement.

“The charges that have been laid must now take their course through the criminal justice system… But we will also take separate action to address the very serious wider issues raised by this case. Iran must be held to account for its actions.”

Cooper said the government would publish next week the findings of a review by Jonathan Hall KC -- the Home Secretary's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation -- into whether existing counter-terrorism frameworks can be adapted to address modern state-based threats, including the design of a proscription mechanism for state-linked entities.

UK raises alarm over Iranian state threats

UK security agencies have warned of increasing threats linked to Tehran. In October, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said at least 20 plots linked to Iranian state actors had been disrupted since early 2022, including efforts to kidnap or kill individuals seen as dissidents.

A fourth man, aged 31, arrested as part of the investigation was released without charge on May 15.

All three defendants arrived in the UK by irregular means, including via small boats, between 2016 and 2022. Sepahvand claimed asylum in 2016, Javadi Manesh in 2019 on religious grounds, and Noori's asylum application was rejected in 2024. He is currently appealing that decision.

Iran’s government has previously denied involvement in alleged plots on British soil. In earlier comments, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran “categorically rejects” claims of targeting foreign sites and called for due process to be afforded to Iranian nationals abroad.

In February, a jury found Hadi Matar guilty of second-degree attempted murder for the August 12, 2022, attack at the Chautauqua Institution in southwestern New York.

Rushdie was stabbed multiple times in the face and neck during a speaking event, leaving him blind in one eye.

In a separate charge, Matar was sentenced to seven years for second-degree assault for stabbing Henry Reese, co-founder of Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum, who was hosting the event. Both sentences will run concurrently.

He also faces federal charges accusing him of attempting to murder Rushdie as an act of terrorism and of providing material support to Hezbollah. A separate trial on those charges is pending in Buffalo.

Rushdie, 77, has lived under threat since 1989, when Iran’s then-supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his death over The Satanic Verses, a novel deemed blasphemous by the Islamic Republic.

Speaking about the trauma suffered by Rushdie, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said: "He's traumatized. He has nightmares about what he experienced."

"Obviously this is a major setback for an individual that was starting to emerge in his very later years of life into society after going into hiding after the fatwa."

Matar's attorney, Nathaniel Barone, said his client plans to appeal the verdict.

Cécile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris have been held in Iran since May 2022 on espionage charges that Paris has strongly denied.

French authorities accuse Tehran of subjecting the couple to conditions akin to torture in Tehran’s Evin prison and failing to provide consular access.

“I can confirm that France will bring a case before the International Court of Justice tomorrow,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine.

Iranian state television previously broadcast videos of the two appearing to confess, but France has denounced the footage as the result of forced confessions.

Earlier in the month, French President Emmanuel Macron has referred to the couple as “hostages” and vowed to secure their release, as France and other EU states accuse Iran of engaging in “hostage diplomacy” by detaining foreign nationals to extract political concessions.

An unknown number of international citizens are being held by Tehran, including Europeans.

In January, the European Parliament adopted a motion for a resolution condemning Iran’s detention of European Union citizens, labelling the practice as “hostage diplomacy.”

Iran has denied mistreatment or political motives in the detentions, although reports by rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented the practice extensively, including the use of forced confessions.

The agreement signals Iran’s intent to deepen political and security ties with African states through its military and intelligence apparatus, according to Eric Lob, associate professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University, writing for The Conversation.

Iran has previously supplied surveillance and combat drones to Ethiopia, aiding government forces during the 2020–2022 Tigray conflict.

The US State Department reported last year that Iran had breached a UN Security Council resolution by sending armed drones to Ethiopia in the summer of 2021.

Similar equipment has reportedly been provided to the Sudanese army in its fight against the Rapid Support Forces, underlining Tehran’s broader regional strategy.

For Addis Ababa, the pact comes amid rising domestic insecurity and follows recent talks with Iran’s Persian Gulf rival, the United Arab Emirates.

Ethiopia is currently facing armed unrest from ethnic militias, including factions of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the Amhara Fano militia. It is also contending with economic challenges and renewed tensions with neighboring Eritrea.

The cooperation deal marks a continuation of a historically complex relationship. Ethiopia was the first sub-Saharan country to establish ties with Iran in the 1960s and resisted pressure to sever them in 2016 after Saudi Arabia and the UAE severed ties with Tehran.

“The agreement highlights Ethiopia’s pragmatic foreign policy, seeking support from both Iran and the UAE — rivals often on opposing sides of regional conflicts like those in Yemen and Sudan,” Lob wrote.

The Pentagon deployed as many as six B-2 bombers in March to a US-British military base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, amid a US bombing campaign in Yemen and mounting tensions with Iran.

Experts say that this had put the B-2s, which have stealth technology and are equipped to carry the heaviest US bombs and nuclear weapons, in a position to operate in the Middle East.

US President Donald Trump announced last week that a deal had been reached to stop bombing Yemen's Houthi group.

The B-2 bombers had been used to carry out strikes against the Iran-backed group.