Iranian dissident who staged hunger strike outside Foreign Office reveals he was told to increase security
Vahid Beheshti was backed by the All-Party Britain-Israel Parliamentary Group of MPs in calls for government to proscribe Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corp
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
A British-Iranian activist who staged a hunger strike outside the Foreign Office after calling for successive governments to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has confirmed he was warned to increase his security over fears he was being targeted by Tehran.
Vahid Beheshti said he was alerted by counter-terrorism officers at a Westminster police station three weeks ago and told to improve his security because the threat level against him “has been raised.”
Beheshti’s effort to secure the proscription of the IRGC was supported by the All-Party Britain-Israel Parliamentary Group of MPs in 2023 including more than a Conservative ex-cabinet ministers and senior figures from Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
Writing for Jewish News in October 2023, Beheshti said that on the 234th day of his hunger strike “our Peace Camp was attacked three times by a number of supporters of Hamas, Hezbollah and the IRGC.”
The Coventry-based activist also later urged Israel to launch pinpointed strikes in Iran, claiming this would help thousands of oppressed Iranians overthrow the regime.
He spoke out after four Iranian men were being questioned by police on suspicion of planning to target what police have only described publicly as a “specific premises” .
The Times has reported that the target of the planned attack was the Israeli embassy in London last weekend.
Three other Iranian men are also being questioned on suspicion of being involved in “foreign power threat activity” along with another man whose nationality has not been confirmed.
Richard Pater, director of the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, described the alleged targeting of the Israeli embassy as “shocking and disturbing but unsurprising”.
Iran’s foreign affairs minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, said his government denied any suggestion of being involved in targeting the Israeli embassy and posted on X: “Iran in no uncertain terms categorically rejects any involvement in such actions and confirms that we have not been informed of any allegations via proper diplomatic channels.”
Other Iranian dissidents living in this country also spoke of their fears that the Iranian regime was seeking to punish them.
Ellie Borhan, a British-Iranian who was attacked last year during a protest in London against the Tehran regime, also told the Guardian newspaper: “Through manipulation and propaganda, they [the Iranian government] continue to radicalise individuals who may be unaware of the regime’s true nature.
“We cannot afford to reach a point where British citizens feel they must leave the country to feel safe.”
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