LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) – Britain said on Monday the Iranian ambassador to the UK had been summoned after an Iranian national and one British-Iranian dual national were charged last week on suspicion of helping Iran’s intelligence services.
The two men appeared in a London court last week accused of being involved in gathering information and undertaking reconnaissance of Jewish targets in Britain given to them by Iranian spy services over five weeks last summer.
“National security remains our top priority, and we take threats posed by Iran and those who do its bidding extremely seriously,” Britain’s foreign office said in a statement.
“This government will take all measures necessary to protect the British people, including exposing Iran’s reckless and destabilising actions at home and abroad.”
The men Nematollah Shahsavani, 40, a dual Iranian-British national, and Alireza Farasati, an Iranian national, 22, were asked to carry out hostile surveillance on the Israeli Embassy, Britain’s oldest synagogue and other Jewish targets, prosecutors said.
They did not enter a plea and were remanded in custody until their next hearing at London’s Old Bailey Court on April 17.
British lawmakers and the domestic spy agency MI5 have long warned of threats posed by Iran, with accusations that Tehran was behind more than 20 suspected kidnap and assassination plots.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; writing by Muvija M; editing by Michael Holden)
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