Iran’s state-sponsored terrorism has intensified alarmingly in recent years, extending far beyond its borders into Europe and the UK. Recent arrests in London have exposed the growing threat. In early May 2025, the Metropolitan Police apprehended eight Iranian nationals during two major counter-terrorism operations. Five were detained for plotting an attack on a “specific premises,” while three others were arrested under the National Security Act for actions linked to a “foreign power threat” – widely believed to be Iran. On the same day, another Iranian was arrested in connection with a foiled terror plot targeting the Israeli embassy in London.
These incidents are not isolated. They reflect a systemic and strategic campaign by the Iranian regime to eliminate dissent, particularly targeting Iranian dissidents abroad. The Iranian dictatorship has long used terrorism as a tool to silence opposition, and its reach is increasingly bold and far-reaching.
One of the most disturbing examples occurred in July 2018 when Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat stationed in Vienna, was arrested for orchestrating a terrorist attack on the Free Iran World Summit near Paris. The summit brought together tens of thousands of Iranian dissidents and hundreds of international dignitaries. Assadi transported explosives using diplomatic immunity and delivered them to operatives in Luxembourg. His conviction by a Belgian court in 2021 marked a historic first: a serving Iranian diplomat jailed for terrorism in Europe.
Evidence seized from Assadi, including a “green notebook,” exposed a vast espionage and terror network operating across Europe. The notebook listed operatives, meeting locations, and financial transactions, yet many individuals connected to this network remain active.
European institutions linked to Tehran are also under scrutiny. In November 2023, German authorities raided the Islamic Centre of Hamburg (IZH), suspected of being an intelligence front controlled by Iran’s Supreme Leader. German intelligence has long warned of IZH’s role in ideological indoctrination, espionage, and recruitment for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
In the UK, MI5 revealed in 2023 that it had disrupted over 20 Iran-linked plots since 2022. These operations point to a coordinated policy of extraterritorial violence driven by the Iranian regime’s core ideology.
Hossein Abedini, a prominent member of the democratic opposition and a survivor of an Iranian assassination attempt in Istanbul in 1990, testified before the UK Parliament’s Joint Human Rights Committee on March 12, 2025. He emphasized that terrorism is “institutionalised in the mullahs’ regime,” and warned that appeasement has only emboldened Tehran. He urged the UK to designate the IRGC and Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence as terrorist organisations and to recognise the Iranian people’s right to resist and demand regime change.
The West can no longer treat these attacks as isolated acts. They are part of a deliberate strategy by a regime fighting to survive. Supporting Iran’s democratic resistance is not only a moral imperative—it is essential to regional and international security.