New revelations emerged about Iran’s clandestine activities in the West, as the Daily Mail reported on Friday that Tehran is recruiting British Shias to spy on Jews and dissidents in the UK.
Citing Israeli and British officials, the report said that IRGC agents approach British Muslims visiting holy Shia sites in Iran and Iraq to recruit them for espionage purposes.
“They are told to return to the UK and gather information on prominent British Jews or targets such as synagogues,” as well as regime opponents the report added.
Kasra Aarabi, of the United Against Nuclear Iran advocacy group, remarked that the IRGC has focused on employing British Muslims mostly originating from Lebanon, Iraq and Pakistan because UK-based Iranians are usually secular and anti-regime and thus, will not cooperate with Tehran’s malign schemes.
Aarabi referred to annual Arbaeen religious mass gathering in the holy Iraqi city of Karbala as an occasion in which the IRGC recruiters are very active as the event gathers annually up to 20 million Shia pilgrims from around the world. Approximately 400,000 Shia Muslims live in the UK.
Following Hamas’ October 7 onslaught, Israel has repeatedly warned the UK against the potential attacks by the Iranian regime and its proxies on British soil, an Israeli official announced. Back in October, it was also reported that Iran’s agents were stirring up unrest in the UK through Gaza protests.
Daily Mail added that according to experts, some Iranians who have entered the UK apparently on student visas are in fact the regime’s spies.
“We do not know the scale of Iranian agents inside Europe and the UK, but all it takes is for one to slip through the net,” Daily Mail quoted an unnamed source as saying.
Meanwhile, a British government official confirmed that the IRGC has resorted to UK-based organized criminal networks when it intended to murder or kidnap its targets on British territory. According to Daily Mail, the IRGC has adopted such a policy as it is very hard for Iranian spies to operate freely in the UK.
In an interview with Iran International TV, political analyst Damoun Mohammadi called on European states to adopt a tougher stance with regard to Tehran’s conspiracies against Iranian dissidents abroad, warning that Europe’s inaction can result in the success of the regime’s plots to intimidate its opponents.
According to the analyst, the Islamic Republic has been targeting its opponents in European countries since it came to power in 1979 but it has recently increased its malign operations as the activities of the foreign-based dissidents have expanded significantly.
UK’s ITV revealed in December 2023 that the IRGC was plotting to assassinate two Iran International television anchors in London in 2022 amid Iranian anti-government protests.
Following ITV’s report, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires. Iran must be sent “an incredibly clear message that this escalation will not be tolerated,” Cameron stressed.
Last year, Iran International temporarily relocated its television broadcast from London to Washington, DC, due to terrorist threats. The decision to suspend Iran International's broadcasting from the British capital was made after the arrest of an Austrian national named Mohammad-Hussein Dovtaev on February 13, 2023.
He was detained while filming outside the network’s premises. The Central Criminal Court of England sentenced Dovtaev to 3.5 years behind bars for attempting to collect information “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.”
In October 2023, Ken McCallum, the Director-General of MI5, the UK’s security service, stated that amid the war between Iran-backed Hamas and Israel, the Islamic Republic may be exploring new ways to threaten the security of Britain.
“Iran has been a rising source of concern and a rising source of task for MI5 over the last 18 months or so in particular,” McCallum then said.
Mayor Alireza Zakani, who has recently visited China, announced earlier in February that several contracts have been signed with Chinese companies to revamp the capital’s infrastructure, including construction and transportation projects.
The Iranian capital grapples with severe housing and transportation challenges, characterized by exorbitant real estate prices that are beyond the means of ordinary Iranians, who can barely afford rent. Daily congestion on Tehran's main streets and highways often transforms short journeys into hours-long ordeals.
Zakani announced plans for the construction of hotels, buildings, amusement parks, and water parks within Tehran, adding, "We have finalized agreements to develop five five-star hotels in collaboration with Chinese companies, building 200,000 housing units, and establish two amusement parks and two water parks in Tehran." In January, Hamidreza Saremi, Zakani’s deputy, said that parcels of land exceeding one hectare in size in the southern regions of Tehran have been allocated to Chinese firms. In December, Hassan Tizmaghz, an advisor to the Minister of Roads and Urban Development, said that Chinese and Belgian companies have presented housing construction proposals, ranging from $200 to $300 per sq meter across Iran, well below construction costs in neighboring Turkey, where the minimum rate is $500 per sq meter.
Of course, some observers take the news with a grain of salt. First, there has been no word from the Chinese side confirming such a deal. Second, building affordable housing has always been an election season promise in Iran, with incumbent Ebrahim Raisi promising in 2021 that he would build one million units. Now, parliamentary elections will take place on March 1, a good time to renew housing promises.
Economic journalist Reza Gheibi told Iran International that Chinese encroachment into Iran's construction sector would have adverse effects related to opacity in the financial details of the scheme and its impact on local companies.
It is not clear what concessions the Iranian government will offer the Chinese and how it is planning to pay for their services, given that it faces a financial crunch.
Gheibi explained that the Chinese housing project is in line with the 25-year cooperation agreement between Tehran and Beijing. The pact, signed in 2021, has been very controversial in Iran because its details have never been disclosed. A leaked copy of the final text is very general, but Tehran officials, beleaguered by economic crisis they cannot solve, hope it will bring $400 billion in investment.
According to Gheibi, even without a strategic and long-term agreement, the Islamic Republic would welcome the Chinese housing scheme because it faces serious economic issues, especially attracting foreign investment, with no solutions in sight. He believes that Iran seeks to export oil and other products to China in return for construction projects, characterized by “a barter of oil for technical, engineering and construction services.” There is a catch, however, Gheibi says, highlighting that China has the upper hand in such deals, therefore it will impose its prices and terms, including more discounts on Iran’s crude and higher prices for its contractors.
With over $390 billion in debt in total, according to a New York Times report in 2023, Chinese construction companies' entry into the Iranian housing sector bears the risk that these companies announce bankruptcy after launching projects in the country, creating myriads of legal issues. Iran, of course, offers opportunities for Chinese firms. According to Tejarat news website in Tehran, most of Iranian construction companies are in slump or went bankrupt due to rising costs, inflation and a lack of demand in the country’s housing sector. Geibi said, “The Iranian market is a golden opportunity to reduce the accumulated debt of some of these companies.”
He also expressed concern about the “allocation” of public lands in Tehran to Chinese companies, pointing out that according to the Iranian constitution no foreign entity is allowed to own land in Iran. Gheibi said the Iranian authorities have not elaborated what they mean by allocating land to Chinese firms, underlining that the Islamic Republic prefers to have China as a stake holder in Iran. “Some analysts have said that the Iranian regime would like China to own assets in Iran, particularly in Tehran, so that in sensitive situations, such as a possible war, backs the Islamic Republic to protect its own properties.”