Communal leader says he was warned by counter-terrorism officers of plot to murder him

A respected communal leader has revealed he was warned by two counter-terrorism officers of a plot to assassinate him.

The man, who spoke to the i newspaper with the agreement of anonymity, said the two officers had read out the sinister details of the threat to him in front of his wife.

While there was no official confirmation of who was behind the threat, the man said he could think that the only people wishing to murder him would be those linked to the Iranian regime and its ruling Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Recalling the visit from the two officers last November, the man told the i newspaper:”They were reading from notes and they said they have reason to believe that my life is in danger.”

He revealed the visit took place in November last year, but ten months before this he had received an earlier warning from counter-terrorism officers “that I should not go to a particular country in the Middle East.”

Without confirming to him the threat was from Iran, the man said the officers “sort of nodded and winked” when he named the country “but they did not say it themselves.”

He said his wife “freaked out” after counter-terror commanders advised her to avoid walking familiar routes with their grandchildren.

Britain’s top intelligence chief Ken McCallum, director general of MI5, had in November himself warned of Iran’s “aggressive intelligence services” pursuing targets in the UK.

In February this year, security minister Tom Tugendhat had told the Commons that Iran had tried to collect intelligence on UK based Israeli and Jewish individuals between 2020 and 2022.”

The minister’s language was deliberately precise so as to be clear that the threats were believed to be against specific individuals rather than against the community as a whole.

Jewish News understands that other communal leaders have been told to remain vigilant, but also that they should not be fearful in their everyday lives of a specific threat to them.

In June 2021, domestic intelligence officials informed Interpol that a suspected member of the Quds Force, an IRGC branch specialising in unconventional warfare, “worked to conduct a lethal operation against Iranian dissidents here in the United Kingdom”.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has come under repeated pressure from MPs from all sides of the House to place the IRGC on the list of designated terrorist groups.

Last month he announced a a travel ban and assets freeze on four individuals linked to the IRGC.

But some home office officials are advising against placing the organisation on the terrorist group list in order to retain some diplomatic ties with Tehran.