The UK sanctioned a Swedish-based Iranian criminal network and its leader on Monday, April 14, citing attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets across Europe, Reuters reported.
The British government has imposed asset freezes and travel bans on the group known as the “Foxtrot Network” and Rawa Majid, an Iranian-born Kurdish-Swedish criminal who the government says was responsible for the network.
Reuters reported that British Foreign Secretary David Lammy stated in an email, “The UK has targeted this criminal network and its leader, Rawa Majid, due to their involvement in violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe on behalf of the Iranian regime. The UK will not tolerate these threats.”
Lammy did not specify when the incident occurred that led to the UK imposing these sanctions, but the Iranian embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier, the United States sanctioned both the Foxtrot group and Swedish criminal Majid in March.
Since early 2022, Britain has said it has responded to more than 20 Iran-backed plots to kidnap or kill British citizens or individuals based in the United Kingdom who are considered a threat by Tehran, according to a Reuters report.
As Iran-Israel tensions rise, Tehran is rolling out a wave of strikes and kidnapping attempts on targets in Europe and the United States, according to a Reuters report in October 2024.
That report also noted that, since 2020, there have been at least 33 assassinations or kidnapping attempts in Europe where local or Israeli authorities have alleged links to Iran, an examination of court documents and public statements by government officials found.
In March, Britain ordered that the Iranian state register anything it does to exert political influence in the UK and that it would be subject to high-level scrutiny in light of Tehran’s increasingly aggressive activities on its side.
Reuters’s reporting contributed to this article.
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