UK spy chief says no increase in terror plots due to Israel's war on Gaza
The chief of Britain's domestic intelligence agency MI5 has said Israel's war in Gaza has not led to a direct increase in terrorist plots in the UK - but warned that Iran could attack British citizens if the conflict in the Middle East escalates.
MI5 director Ken McCallum said in a speech at London's Counter Terrorism Operations Centre on Tuesday that "ripples from conflict in that region will not necessarily arrive at our shores in a straightforward fashion".
He added such threats would instead "be filtered through the lens of online media and mixed with existing views and grievances in unpredictable ways".
McCallum said there is a "worsening threat from al-Qaeda and in particular from Islamic State", which has "resumed efforts to export terrorism".
But he claimed that Iran has been behind "plot after plot" in Britain in the last two years, and that it has made "extensive use of criminals as proxies" to target people Tehran considers threatening.
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Twenty Iran-backed plots have been uncovered and foiled since January 2022, McCallum said, warning that if the conflict in the Middle East escalates, Iran could "repurpose" its criminal network to attack British citizens.
The Iranian foreign ministry has strongly rejected the spy chief's "accusations", accusing Britain of hosting "terrorist groups", which it did not name.
Proscribing the IRGC
The intelligence chief's comments come as a British former soldier stands trial for allegedly arranging to meet an Iranian "agent" in a north London park to pass on sensitive military information, where he was handed a "dog poo bag" with £1,500 ($1,960) inside.
Woolwich Crown Court heard that Daniel Khalife, 23, had previously offered his services to spy agency MI6.
After his arrest, he then allegedly escaped from prison in September 2023.
In opposition, Labour said it would proscribe the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an elite arm of the Iranian military which takes the lead in the state's conflict against Israel.
However, it has not done so since entering government.
Last week, the foreign office told MEE: "We will not hesitate to take the most effective measures against the regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
"We are working at pace to identify further ways to deal with state threats including those from the IRGC."
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