Britain Sanctions Iran Over the RAF Fairford Incident
The prime minister told MPs the incident at the Gloucestershire base was “highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran, almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard”. Two Iranians face asset freezes and travel bans, the ambassador has been summoned, and twenty-nine countries have signed a joint condemnation.
The tension in this is worth stating rather than smoothing over. Five men drove to the village beside the base in three vans shortly after midnight on 27 September, one of them calling 999 as they went. Officers found an accelerant — petrol — but no explosives. Seven men in their twenties have now been arrested and bailed and nobody has been charged. Britain has nonetheless sanctioned two men: Ruhollah Bazghandi, head of counterespionage operations within the Revolutionary Guard, and Shahram Ali Reza Tamarzadeh Jakki, named as a facilitator of a criminal network used against Iranian dissidents. Andy Burnham also referred to incidents at RAF Molesworth as well as Fairford, which has not been reported before. More than 550 Iranian individuals and entities are now designated, and officials say credible Iranian-backed threats to kill or kidnap people in Britain rose above twenty last year. Ed Miliband instructed his department to summon the ambassador; the summons itself was conducted by the Middle East minister Stephen Doughty. Tehran denies involvement. The home secretary is due to update the Commons.