LONDON, Oct 2 (Reuters) – Two Iranian nationals were charged in Britain with preparing a terrorist attack against the Jewish community in northern England, police said on Friday, amid heightened tension over a separate suspected plot targeting a US-linked military base.
Rahman Salehi, 35, and Salam Ahmadyan, 36, have been charged with preparing to commit or assisting another to commit an act of terrorism in Manchester on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Britain has seen a significant rise in antisemitism since the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023 that triggered the subsequent war in Gaza, including a series of attacks on Jewish sites in London earlier this year.
“It is no secret that this country faces a range of serious threats from the Iranian regime,” Home Secretary (interior minister) Shabana Mahmood said in a statement. “They target our Jewish communities and try to silence their critics overseas, often through proxies and criminal networks to hide their involvement.”
Iran has always denied such accusations.
Counterterrorism police said Salehi and Ahmadyan had allegedly tried to acquire components and equipment to make an improvised explosive device and conducted reconnaissance on potential targets for attack.
Police also said the two men had allegedly been in contact with an overseas third party who might be in Iran.
The pair, who Mahmood said had arrived in Britain on a small boat from Europe several years ago, will appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday. One of the men had been granted asylum, and the other had a live asylum claim, the interior ministry said.
The charges were announced a year after a fatal attack on a Manchester synagogue by a British citizen of Syrian descent. Earlier this week, Britain said Tehran had been involved in an alleged plot targeting an airbase used by the US to launch attacks against Iran.
“I’m aware that the news of this alleged plot coming during the High Holy day period has caused a great deal of concern to the Jewish community, as well as with the wider public,” Vicki Evans, Senior National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, said in a statement.
“It also coincides with the anniversary of the devastating terrorist attack last year at Heaton Park synagogue and comes in a wider context of increasing antisemitic incidents across the UK.”
Detectives said there was no connection between Friday’s charges and the suspected plot involving the RAF Fairford air base, over which a dual UK-Iranian national was arrested on Thursday.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said there were “strong indications” Iran was involved in relation to RAF Fairford, though Iran denied any involvement and said speculation would “fuel Iranophobia propaganda”.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin and Michael Holden; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
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