Burnham accuses Iran’s IRGC of directing RAF Fairford plot as new sanctions announced

Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the House of Commons that it is “highly likely” the suspected plot at RAF Fairford was coordinated in Iran and “almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

In a statement to MPs, he declared, “We will not tolerate these threats on our soil.”

Burnham continued, “We will crack down on Iran’s use of criminal networks, using our full range of powers to target them and their funding streams, and we will bring further sanctions to restrict the capacity of Iran and the IRGC to do us harm.”

Shortly after Burnham spoke, the Foreign Office confirmed new sanctions against two individuals—one linked to the IRGC, and the other to plots against Iranian dissidents.

The alleged RAF Fairford plot came to light when five British men were arrested in the early hours of September 27 by three vans near the base on suspected terrorism and explosive offences.

Seven people have been arrested and bailed over the incident at RAF Fairford after three suspicious vans were stopped near the airbase on September 27.

No explosive materials were found in the vans but a quantity of petrol was seized.

Confirming new sanctions, the Foreign Office named Ruhollah Bazghandi, Head of Counterespionage Operations within the IRGC, and Shahram Ali Reza Tamarzadeh Jakki, facilitator of the Zindashti criminal network involved in several plots against Iranian dissidents.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said: “Today I instructed my department to summon the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Kingdom to reiterate this message in its entirety. We are also announcing the designation of two Iranian nationals for their role in facilitating or engaging in hostile activity on behalf of the Iranian regime, with the clear intent of threatening, planning or conducting attacks overseas.”

Middle East minister Stephen Doughty added:”Iran’s attempts to undermine the security of the United Kingdom & our international partners are utterly unacceptable.

“Today we summoned the Iranian Ambassador to reiterate this message directly. We are clear that we will not tolerate threats from Iran on British soil.”

The UK government formally designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a threat to national security in July.

It followed a long campaign going back several years from communal organisations to act over a force that has targeted Israeli and Jewish citizens globally, including here.

This country has also previously  placed asset freezes, travel bans, and director disqualifications on key IRGC-linked figures and sanctioned hundreds of Iranian individuals and entities over plots and intimidation on British soil.

In a joint statement the US, UK, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden condemned Iran.

They said the RAF Fairford incident “demonstrates the IRGC’s continued willingness to project hostile activity beyond its borders through covert networks and proxy actors”.

“This comes soon after the recent campaign of attacks across Europe targeting Jewish communities, Iranian journalists, and US interests, claimed by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI),” the statement added.

The nations said “any attempt by Iran to threaten, silence, intimidate, harass, harm, or coerce people on our territories through proxies or any other means is unacceptable”.

Burnham came under pressure though over his comments related to Russian interference.

He denied he questioned the legitimacy of the 2016 EU referendum result, when he told The Rest Is Politics podcast that the UK had not “informed people sufficiently about the extent to which people are seeking to disrupt the political process from overseas”.

Facing Burnham over the despatch boxes, Kemi Badenoch told the Commons: “Over the weekend, on The Rest Is Politics podcast, he implied that the referendum result was illegitimate because of Russian interference.

“Where has this come from? We all remember in 2018, the head of MI5 said that there was no evidence that Russia had influenced the EU referendum result.”

The Conservative Party leader later added: “Will he confirm here and now whether he believes the referendum result was legitimate and, if not, will he publish the evidence that Russia swung the result of the 2016 referendum?”

Burnham replied: “I implied no such thing in my comments on The Rest Is Politics podcast. I think she should go back and look again.”

The Prime Minister also said “it is a matter of record that Russian actors sought to interfere” in a previous general election and continued: “We think it is inconceivable that this was the first time.”