In his annual address on the United Kingdom's security landscape, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum set out the range of threats currently bearing down on the country. Of the countries named, Iran ranked second in prominence, trailing only Russia.

McCallum described Iran as having sought to outsource acts of violence on British soil to third parties, while also broadening its covert disruptive activities across the country over the past year. Over the course of the preceding year, more than 50 people were taken into custody in connection with activities traced back to Iranian-linked networks, with a considerable portion of those operations directed at Jewish communities across Britain.

Documents compiled by intelligence agencies indicate that Iran has, over an extended period, directed operations in foreign countries through intermediary networks and contracted individuals. For a period ending only recently, the focus of those operations on British soil had fallen on Persian-language outlets and members of its own diaspora viewed as opponents of the state.

A knife attack on Pouria Zeraati, a presenter with Iran International television, took place in March 2024, with a court later determining that two Romanian nationals who carried out the assault had done so at the direction of Iran. Operations linked to Iran saw a noticeable uptick beginning in the early months of 2025.

Multiple incidents directed at the Jewish community in the UK have been linked by authorities to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Responsibility for a number of those attacks has been asserted by Harakat Ashab Al Yamin Al Islamia — also known as Hayi — a group the British government considers to operate on behalf of the IRGC.

Formal espionage-related charges were brought against two individuals in March, with prosecutors alleging they had gathered intelligence on London's Jewish community and provided support to a foreign intelligence service. Towards the end of that month, a fire set deliberately — and later attributed to Hayi — gutted four vehicles operated by the Jewish paramedic organisation Hatzola and left a nearby synagogue with structural damage.

Several incidents targeting synagogues and Jewish community centres across London were recorded throughout April. Weeks later, a group of five individuals was detained in the vicinity of RAF Fairford, an airbase operated by the United States that had been deployed in strikes against Iran.

Speaking before Parliament, Burnham conveyed that the attack had in all likelihood been orchestrated under IRGC direction. Terrorism-preparation charges were subsequently brought against two men whom prosecutors allege conducted reconnaissance at a Manchester synagogue and the city's Jewish Museum.

No involvement in the matter was claimed by Iranian officials. Foreign Minister Araghchi told British officials the arrests at RAF Fairford bore no connection to Iran, yet that position sat in tension with prior statements from the Revolutionary Guards, which had publicly designated the base as a military target.

Publicly, the UK made its position clear, holding Iran responsible for the attacks. Statements from senior government figures — including then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer in May and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood in July — described foreign state actors as directing hostile activity against people in Britain through intermediaries. Kemi Badenoch, who leads the opposition Conservative Party, characterised the pattern of attacks targeting the Jewish community as a matter of national urgency. Separately, a funding package of £250 million, approximately $330 million, spread across three years has been set aside for the protection of that community.

Both the IRGC and Hayi now carry formal designations under the National Security (State Threats) Act, a piece of legislation put in place to strengthen the government's ability to respond to threats originating from foreign states. Those convicted of providing support to the organisations face a maximum prison term of 14 years, while Iran's Foreign Ministry described the move as an act it found both contemptible and provocative.

Investigators have found that a substantial share of the violence involves young recruits who receive their assignments, coordination, and payment through online channels, with those directing the operations reportedly based in Iran or Iraq and relying on platforms such as Telegram and Snapchat to communicate instructions. Four individuals from Britain, ranging in age from 17 to 20 at the time, carried out the assaults on Hatzola ambulance vehicles.

Analysts have flagged a pattern in which hostility toward Jewish communities appears to offer both a pool of potential targets and a degree of operational concealment. Individuals acting independently — drawn to the ideology of radical religious figures — have been assessed as a connected area of concern.

A knife attack targeting a synagogue in Manchester occurred in October of that year, carried out by a person authorities described as having been motivated by the ideology of the Islamic State group.

Analysts have identified three areas relevant to addressing that model: mapping the broker networks that organise the labour supply, tracing the flow of funds, and pressing digital platforms to open up the communication channels those networks depend on.

Among the proposals reportedly under active consideration are tighter vetting procedures for asylum applicants arriving from Iran, revised restrictions on individuals who promote hatred through religious platforms, continuation of the existing prohibition on the Al Quds Day march, and a range of diplomatic measures up to and including the expulsion of Iranian embassy staff or a reduction in that mission's formal status. Further measures under consideration include closure of the Islamic Centre of England — which a government minister told Parliament serves as the recognised religious representative of Iran's Supreme Leader within the United Kingdom — a bar on entry visas for clerics whose training took place under the Iranian government's auspices, and new legislative authority for the Charity Commission to remove charitable status from organisations found to be operating as vehicles for hostile foreign state interests.