The United States and thirteen allied countries have accused Iran of plotting to kill, kidnap and intimidate individuals in Europe and North America, citing violations of sovereignty and links to international criminal networks.
“These services are increasingly collaborating with international criminal organizations to target journalists, dissidents, Jewish citizens, and current and former officials,” the US State Department said in a joint statement with European countries.
They included the United Kingdom, Albania, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.
The governments called on Iranian authorities to immediately halt the activities and pledged to work together to prevent further threats.
On Monday, a Belgian lawmaker of Iranian descent, Darya Safai said the European country's police warned her of an Iranian plot to abduct her via Turkey after she backed labeling the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group.
Earlier this month, British counter terrorism police said Iran alongside Russia and China is behind a growing number of life-threatening operations on UK soil including assassination and kidnapping plots carried out by criminal proxies.
Additionally, the European Union sanctioned an Iran-linked network over their alleged role in assassination plots and enforced disappearances of dissidents abroad, including on European soil.
A new UK parliamentary report this week classed Iran is one of the most aggressive state actors targeting individuals in the United Kingdom.
Since January 2022, there have been at least 15 attempts at murder or kidnap against British nationals or UK-based individuals, according to a report by UK Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) this month.
Iran has previously been accused of involvement in the kidnapping and killing of foreign nationals abroad.
In 2020, German-Iranian dissident Jamshid Sharmahd was kidnapped by Iranian operatives from Dubai and forcibly taken to Iran via Oman. He was sentenced to death and executed in what Amnesty called a "grossly unfair trial" in 2023.
Iran also abducted dissident journalist Rouhollah Zam from Iraq after luring him to leave Paris for the Arab country in September 2019. He was later sentenced to death and executed in Iran in 2021.
