Tehran-backed terrorist sleeper cells could attack Britain from within

Iran-backed terrorist cells could launch attacks in Britain if the dispute between the two countries worsens.

MI5 and MI6 officials said they consider Tehran the third-biggest threat to UK security.

They believe Tehran has organised and funded sleeper cells across Europe that could launch attacks in response to conflict in the Middle East.

The cells are linked to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, intelligence sources told

The Telegraph newspaper. “Iran has Hezbollah operatives in position to carry out a terrorist attack in the event of a conflict,” it reported. “That is the nature of the domestic threat Iran poses to the UK.”

Tehran has been publicly blamed for several cyberattacks in the UK – one on politicians in 2017 and another last year on the postal service, local government offices and businesses.

Tension has risen between Britain and Iran after both seized oil tankers. On Friday, the Steno Impero vessel was seized in Omani waters and rerouted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s special forces to be detained in Iran.

An audio recording was released on Sunday, in which a person on the British ship is heard warning an Iranian patrol boat on radio against interfering with the oil tanker before it was seized.

London described the incident, a response to the seizure of the Iranian vessel Grace I by Britain in Gibraltar, as illegal.

“Current tensions are extremely concerning and our priority is to de-escalate,” the government told the UN Security Council. “We do not seek confrontation with Iran.

“But it is unacceptable and highly escalatory to threaten shipping going about its legitimate business through internationally recognised transit corridors.”

Concerns over the Iranbacked group’s underground network in Britain have been fuelled by revelations of a disrupted bomb plot in 2015. Police and security forces found three tonnes of an explosive mixture – more than the amount used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, which killed 168 people.

There was no evidence at the time to suggest the UK was a target or that any plot was at an advanced stage.

One man, aged in his forties, was held in connection with the find but was bailed and later released without charge.

“No other arrests were made in connection with the investigation, which is now closed,” London’s police force said.

The inquiry was a “covert intelligence operation” for which a criminal prosecution was not being sought. Consequently, evidence that could be presented in court may not exist.

The raid on the premises on September 30 came less than three weeks before the nuclear treaty between Iran and the US, China, Germany, France, Russia and the UK came into effect.

The deal, signed in July that year, promised to lift sanctions on Tehran in return for restrictions on its nuclear programme.