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Two Iranian men were convicted in Britain on Thursday of spying on journalists and critics of Tehran, the latest case raising alarm over Iranian operations beyond the Middle East, as France accuses the IRGC of unprecedented cyberattacks and a senior UAE official warns of Iranian sleeper cells abroad.
The developments come as the Trump administration continues its campaign of economic pressure against Tehran while leaving the door open to diplomatic negotiations, raising questions about how Iran’s overseas intelligence networks and alleged covert activities might factor into any future agreement.
A jury at Woolwich Crown Court in London found Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, guilty of engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service after prosecutors said they carried out surveillance of journalists and other individuals critical of the Iranian government, according to Reuters.
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The targets included journalists working for Iran International, a London-based Persian-language news outlet critical of Tehran, and a prominent figure associated with UK Lawyers for Israel.
According to prosecutors, the surveillance operation took place between August 2024 and March 2025 and involved visits to locations associated with the targets, photographs, videos and online research.
Sepahvand was also convicted of engaging in preparatory conduct with the intention of committing serious violence against a person in Britain, while Manesh was acquitted of that charge and a third defendant was cleared of all charges.
British authorities described the case as the first convictions of Iranian nationals under the National Security Act of 2023, warning that the verdicts underscored an ongoing threat from Iranian intelligence operations. Iran has denied involvement.
Similar concerns have emerged in the United States. Just two days before the British verdicts, the U.S. Justice Department announced terrorism charges against three alleged Iranian-backed operatives accused of involvement in nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and the United States.
The three men allegedly supported Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Kata’ib Hezbollah, targeting Jewish communities and plotting an attack on RAF Fairford, a British air base housing American military personnel, according to the Nov. 10 indictment. Prosecutors allege that one defendant, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, continued coordinating terrorist activities through coded messages while imprisoned in New York. The network was also allegedly involved in planning an attack on a Manhattan synagogue.
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In France, authorities on Monday accused Iran’s IRGC of orchestrating a major cyberattack against the country’s food supply infrastructure.
According to a Nov. 9 report by France’s Cyber Crisis Coordination Centre, Iranian-linked hackers targeted refrigeration controllers at approximately 700 retail locations across France on Oct. 11 and 12.
Investigators said the attackers remotely altered defrost settings, causing refrigeration equipment to reach abnormally high temperatures, spoiling significant quantities of food and triggering at least 15 reported fire outbreaks.
The operation affected major supermarket chains, including Carrefour, Leclerc and Intermarché, as well as other businesses in the food industry.
French investigators attributed the operation to Shahid Kaveh, a cyber-offensive unit operating under the IRGC’s electronic and cyber command.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot described the attack as unprecedented in its scale and aggression, while authorities announced plans to pursue European sanctions against those responsible.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejected what it described as baseless and malicious allegations in a statement issued Tuesday strongly condemning the “persistent practice” of directing accusations toward Tehran.
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The European cases echo warnings from the Gulf, where officials have raised concerns that Iran’s regional operations extend beyond missiles, drones and armed proxy groups.
Dr. Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, chairman of the Defense, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee of the UAE’s Federal National Council, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that Iranian-linked sleeper cells were operating both within the region and elsewhere.
“They created these sleeping cells in the region and also in other places,” Al Nuaimi said. “We were fortunate to find out about these cells, to act and to implement the law, our law, the UAE law, against them.”
Al Nuaimi previously disclosed during an Oct. 15 briefing that hundreds of suspected Iranian sleeper-cell members had been arrested in the UAE, including individuals he said helped direct Iranian missile and drone attacks against the country.
Speaking separately to Fox News Digital, Al Nuaimi argued that negotiations with Tehran should address not only its nuclear program and regional proxies, but also covert networks operating in other countries.
“This is where it should be part of the negotiation with the Iranians: you have to stop not only the proxies that we know, but also using these sleeping cells in other countries,” he said.
Beyond the criminal investigations, Iranian-American journalist and foreign policy analyst Lisa Daftari described the personal toll of what she believes to be Iranian intelligence operations on U.S. soil. In an earlier interview with Fox News Digital, Daftari said she had been followed in Los Angeles and New York, repeatedly hacked and approached in person. She said the FBI informed her that she was on a list of potential Iranian regime targets after hackers gained access to her accounts. “The message they want to send is very clear, that we know where you are, we can reach you,” she said.
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In a joint declaration issued Wednesday following a meeting in Paris, G7 foreign ministers expressed grave concern about Iranian involvement in violent plots targeting people and territory in their countries.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to reporters following the G7 meeting on Tuesday, accused Tehran of being responsible for much of the instability across the Middle East.
“They are behind all the instability in the region; they are the source of instability in the region,” Rubio said, referring to Iran’s support for armed groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.
Rubio argued that the Trump administration’s economic pressure campaign was significantly weakening the Iranian government and reducing its ability to finance activities abroad, including terrorism and cyber operations.
He said Washington remained open to diplomacy but would not accept what he described as unrealistic Iranian demands.
The G7 declaration also pledged to continue coordinating economic and political measures designed to constrain Tehran’s ability to destabilize countries both inside and outside the Middle East.
The British convictions, French cyberattack findings and UAE allegations involve different types of activity, and no evidence has been presented establishing that they formed part of a single coordinated operation.
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Taken together, however, they illustrate the range of threats Western and Gulf authorities are attributing to Iran — from surveillance of dissidents and alleged sleeper networks to attacks on civilian infrastructure — even as diplomatic efforts seek to prevent another round of military escalation.
