The United Kingdom investigates the possible link between the two alleged schemes sponsored by the Iranian state

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British officials are currently looking for two schemes involving mainly Iranian nationals residing in the UK. At this point, the evidence suggests that these plots can be supported by a nation state, according to a high figure known in the case.

During the weekend, authorities in London and other UK regions arrested eight individuals, according to official reports. Among these, the seven are reported to be Iranian citizens, as the authorities say.

Law enforcement revealed that three of the individuals were apprehended pursuant to Article 27 of the United Kingdom National Security Law 2023, which allows the police to ban individuals suspected of cooperating with a foreign government.

Officials said both plots were separate, but the senior official informed on the threat said British law enforcement is now trying to determine whether the same entity was running both plots.

The CIA and the Office of the National Director of US Intelligence did not respond to requests for comment.

Some information about one of the two plots came to light on the early Sunday with local time.

In the first announcement of the arrests, metropolitan police said they took five men in detention, four of whom are of Iranian origin, in connection with what they called “a suspected terrorist plot in the United Kingdom”

Men’s range, who are 29 to 46, were arrested in various areas in the UK – including Swindon, London, Stockport, Rochdale and Manchester – under the act of terrorism “on the suspicion of preparing a terrorist act,” police said. The age and nationality of the fifth man is still being determined.

They all remain in the custody of the police. A motive was not immediately clear.

Police said an “fast -moving” investigation into the first possible attack was underway. Police against terrorism claimed that the first group was aiming for a specific site, but refused to say where.

Details regarding the other alleged attack plan have not been detected.

Interior Secretary Yvette Cooper called the two attacks “major operations” and said they reflect “some of the biggest anti-state threat operations and counter-terrorism we have seen in recent years”, according to the Sky News statement video. She also called the ongoing investigation “extremely important”.

Iranian nationals in the past have been aimed at Iranians based in the United Kingdom. In one case, an independent television network called Iran International which broadcasts Farsi and had been critical of the Iranian government-transferred from London to the United States after its journalists received state-backed threats from Iran, the BBC reported in 2023.

According to an ITV News investigation into that plot, the Islamic revolutionary corps plan planned to kill two journalists on the network using a human smuggler, which they pay $ 200,000 to carry out the attack. The plan was finally destroyed when the smuggler became a “double agent” for a non -name agency of Western intelligence, according to the investigation.

In March 2024, another Iranian international journalist was targeted and stabbed outside his home in London, the Associated Press reported at the time. Two Romanian men were later charged with attack.

The United Kingdom has responded to 20 Iran -backed plots since the beginning of 2022, which pose “potentially deadly threats to British citizens and residents of the United Kingdom,” said United Kingdom State Dan Jarvis last month, citing MI5 officials.

Jarvis said Iran is targeting dissidents, media organizations and journalists reporting on the violent oppression of the Iranian regime.

He added that Iran could also plan attacks on the Jewish or Israeli target, citing a “long model to target Jewish people and Israelis internationally from Iranian intelligence services”.

“It is clear that these plots are a conscious strategy of the Iranian regime to stall criticism through intimidation and fear,” Jarvis said.