London police said four men were arrested in the U.K. capital on suspicion of aiding Iran by spying on the Jewish community, after arrests and searches in and around north London shortly after 1 a.m.
In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said the suspects — one Iranian and three dual British-Iranian nationals — were taken into custody on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service. Police said investigators were looking into spying on locations and individuals.
Authorities said the four men arrested were aged 22, 40, 52 and 55. Police said searches were ongoing at the addresses where arrests were made as well as other nearby properties.
The Metropolitan Police said six other men were also arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender and were taken into custody. The force did not detail what those additional arrests were tied to.
Commander Helen Flanagan, who is in charge of counterterrorism policing in London, said the public may be concerned, “in particular the Jewish community,” and asked people to remain vigilant. Flanagan added that if they see or hear anything that concerns them, they should contact police.
The arrests were reported as the U.S. and Israel continued to strike Iran, and as Iran carried out retaliatory strikes on Israel, U.S. bases and elsewhere across the region. The report said Britain is not involved in offensive operations but is assisting in regional defense.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism said it was grateful to police “for foiling this alleged plot,” but accused the British government of not taking the threat from Iran seriously. The group said the U.K. “may not be acting against Iran but Iran is acting against us,” and criticized what it called the government’s failure to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, describing the group as a main instrument Iran uses to foment antisemitic violence worldwide.
Earlier, the head of Britain’s MI5 domestic intelligence service, Ken McCallum, said in October that more than 20 “potentially lethal Iran-backed plots” had been disrupted in the previous 12 months. McCallum alleged that Iran, along with Russia, is increasingly using “ugly methods,” including “surveillance, sabotage, arson or physical violence,” and that the U.K. has accused Iran of using criminal proxies to conduct attacks on European soil.
The police arrests and searches also landed amid renewed concerns within Britain about Iran-related espionage, with the report saying most of the disrupted Iran-backed plots targeted opposition Farsi-language media outlets or the Jewish community.