A top United Kingdom spy chief warned in a speech Tuesday, Oct. 13, that Iran is stepping up its attempts to carry out terrorist plots on British soil.
"The other state keen on subcontracting its UK violence is Iran," Sir Ken McCallum, director of the MI5 domestic counterintelligence agency said. "I’ve been calling this out since 2022. Today, we continue to see familiar Iranian intent – using criminal proxies to try to intimidate oppositionists, Iranian media organisations, and Israeli sites."
McCallum heads a British agency similar to the FBI and on Tuesday delivered an annual speech on spy threats to the United Kingdom. The MI5 chief warned that while Russia remains the nation’s top adversary, Iran is increasing its efforts to pull off an attack.
McCallum did not mention the recent suspected plot against U.S. bombers at RAF Fairford but appeared to allude to the incident.
"The other major shift this year has been Iranian ambitions to come at harder targets, like military sites. You will appreciate that, with live investigations ongoing and the need to avoid prejudicing future prosecutions, there are things I can’t say," the spy chief added. "What I can say is that those who seek to cause mayhem on British streets – whether hired thugs here or their paymasters overseas – will meet an unflinching response."
According to McCallum, U.K. authorities have made 50 arrests over the last 12 months in connection with Iran-linked operations. Among them are "a wave of arson and sabotage incidents targeting Jewish communities," he said.
Spy chief warns of threats from Russia
Russia however remains the chief aggressor against the U.K., said McCallum, joining a growing number of officials in NATO nations warning of efforts to undermine support for Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The speech comes just a day after officials in Poland accused the Kremlin of being behind an attack on a Starlink station and about a month after authorities in Germany also pointed the finger at Russia over a suspected attempted drone attack at an airport.
"Like a number of national leaders have recently highlighted, the Russian military and intelligence services are once again escalating their attempts at hybrid warfare – being careful to stay below the NATO Article V threshold it’d be foolish for them to cross," McCallum said. "This means Russia is using tactics that stop short – though sometimes not much short – of conventional conflict."
The spy chief also referenced a cyberattack on energy infrastructure in Poland, a thwarted Russian assassination on U.S. soil and a plot to sabotage a U.K. drone factory.
"It’s worth clocking why these things are happening. It’s no accident that Russian aggressors are trying to unsettle other European homelands at a time when their military progress in Ukraine is minimal and horrifically costly," said McCallum. "The whole aim of hybrid tactics is to try to intimidate us. So let’s not fall into that trap."
The speech comes just days after President Donald Trump announced he had struck a deal with Putin to bring Russian diesel to the United States, a move sharply criticized by some Republicans and U.S. allies.
White House officials have not responded to requests for comment on Russian threats in the NATO countries amid the deal.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: British spy chief warns of growing Iranian threat as war continues
