The United States, United Kingdom, and a dozen allied nations have issued a joint statement accusing Iran of waging an escalating campaign of assassinations, kidnappings, and harassment across Europe and North America, targeting dissidents, journalists, and Jewish communities.

“We are united in our opposition to the attempts of Iranian intelligence services to kill, kidnap, and harass people in Europe and North America in clear violation of our sovereignty,” read the statement, signed by the governments of Albania, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The coordinated condemnation comes amid mounting evidence that Tehran is outsourcing attacks to transnational criminal networks—including violent gangs in Sweden and hit squads in the UK and France—to pursue its enemies abroad.

British intelligence officials say they have disrupted over 20 Iranian plots on UK soil since early 2022, including efforts to assassinate or abduct British nationals and exiled dissidents viewed by Tehran as threats to its regime.

A U.S. government report published last Tuesday warned that Iran has intensified efforts to strike Jewish targets in Europe. According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Iranian operatives are relying on local proxies such as Sweden’s Foxtrot and Rumba gangs, as well as criminal collaborators in Germany, Belgium, and France, to carry out attacks.

Britain’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) recently described Iran as a “significant and wide-ranging threat” to national security. While not as globally aggressive as Russia or China, Iran’s covert operations, the ISC warned, are expanding rapidly—and the UK government is not adequately prepared.

“There is now a clear case for the UK to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” the ISC concluded, echoing calls from lawmakers urging the government to formally label the group as a terrorist organization.

In response to the growing threat, London announced in March that Tehran would be forced to register all political influence activities under new foreign influence transparency laws, a move designed to expose Iran’s clandestine lobbying and infiltration efforts.

The list of recent Iranian plots is alarming. In December, two Romanian nationals were charged after a journalist from an Iranian diaspora outlet in London was stabbed. Just months earlier, three Iranian nationals were indicted for assisting Tehran’s foreign intelligence service in a plan to target UK-based journalists.

In May, eight Iranian men were arrested in Britain, reportedly just hours before launching an attack on the Israeli Embassy in London.

And in October, Reuters revealed that Iranian operatives were behind a surge of assassination attempts across Europe and the United States, pointing to a systematic campaign to eliminate Tehran’s critics far beyond its borders.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)