‘Violations of Sovereignty’: Western Nations Issue Joint Statement Condemning Iranian Intelligence Threats

Latest Developments

Joint Statement Issued: The United States and 13 NATO allies — the United Kingdom, Albania, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden — issued a joint statement on July 31 condemning the increasing threat posed by Iran’s intelligence services in their respective countries. The statement asserted that Iran is seeking to collaborate with international criminal organizations “to target journalists, dissidents, Jewish citizens, and current and former officials in Europe and North America,” adding that these threats constituted “violations of sovereignty.” The bloc concluded by calling on “the Iranian authorities to immediately put an end to such illegal activities in our respective territories.”
Iran Rejects Condemnation: Iran’s foreign ministry flatly rejected the joint statement, calling it a “blatant fabrication and a diversionary tactic, part of a malicious campaign of Iranophobia aimed at pressuring the Iranian people.” Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei additionally accused the signatories of harboring armed groups opposed to the Islamic Republic, stating that they “must be held accountable for their support and hosting of terrorist and violent groups, which constitutes a violation of international law and support for terrorism.”
Recent International Iranian Threats: The United Kingdom has foiled over 20 Iran-linked plots to kill or abduct individuals in the country since 2022, including British nationals. Iran was also reportedly behind a string of attempted assassinations and abductions in Europe and the United States. In early July, Germany arrested a man suspected of carrying out surveillance operations on “Jewish locations and people in Berlin” on behalf of Iranian intelligence.

FDD Expert Response

“It is imperative that like-minded countries work together to deny Iran, the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, freedom of action on their soil. The broader the coalition against Tehran’s threat network — which ranges from proxies to local lone wolf radicals to transnational criminal syndicates — the greater the chances of handicapping its terror threat. Following the recent bombing of its nuclear facilities, the regime is likely to rely on these terror and asymmetric networks to strike soft targets after failing to perform militarily against Israel and America.” — Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran Program Senior Director and Senior Fellow

“Tehran has increasingly sought to distance itself from its extraterritorial operations by outsourcing violence to Western organized crime networks. Nevertheless, the regime’s fingerprints stretch from Istanbul to Washington, DC, spearheaded primarily by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran’s campaign of transnational repression and targeted terrorism has disproportionately focused on Europe in recent years — largely without consequence. This statement should serve as a step toward the United Kingdom and European Union finally designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization given its long record of orchestrating terror plots across Europe.” — Janatan Sayeh, Research Analyst