LONDON — There are strong indications Tehran played a part in a security incident outside a British air base that U.S. forces use to facilitate strikes on Iran, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Wednesday.
Burnham said he had chaired an emergency security meeting this week after the incident, which happened early Sunday. Five men, all British nationals, were arrested on suspicion of terrorist and explosives offenses and were released on bail this week.
“We have been waiting to confirm what we could say, but we can now confirm our belief that Iran played a part,” he said in an interview with Sky News.
“This remains, though, a complex and very serious police investigation, so I can’t say any more at this stage,” he added.
The British Parliament is in recess, but Burnham said he “wouldn’t hesitate” to recall lawmakers “should that be necessary.”
Iran has denied any involvement in the incident.
“The embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in London categorically rejects and strongly condemns the recent unfounded and malicious speculations published by some British individuals and media outlets attempting to link Iran to arrest of five suspects in the vicinity of RAF Fairford base,” the Iranian Embassy in Britain said in a statement Monday on X.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday on X that Burnham was wrongly accusing Iran of having played a role in the incident.
“PM Burnham says the UK Government ‘can confirm our belief that we believe Iran to have played a part’ in the RAF Fairford incident,” Araghchi wrote. “I can confirm Iran’s belief that releasing supposed terrorists working for foreign states really says it all. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”
Police on Thursday arrested a dual U.K.-Iranian national on suspicion of plotting a terror attack following a security incident at a U.S.-run military air base in England that British authorities have linked to Tehran.
The 27-year-old man was arrested in London on Thursday, and police have searched two properties in the U.K. capital, Counter Terrorism Policing said in a statement.
President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. is closely examining the incident.
Asked whether he was planning any response to Iran, Trump replied: “Well, we are. Look, we are studying it right now. We’re studying it. We’re studying it very hard.”
“U.K. did release a number of people that we caught wanting to blow up a base,” Trump added. “We caught them early, and I’m trying to figure out if that’s for real — that they actually did it. Maybe they did it for a reason, but we’re going to know about that this afternoon, so we’ll report on that.”
On Thursday, Trump said he was surprised that the men were released but expressed support for the U.K. investigation.
“I have a lot of respect, however, for Scotland Yard. I think they know what they’re doing, but I was a little bit surprised,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had provided intelligence to the U.K. about an attack.
“We gave the Brits the intel that there was going to be an attack and it’s an Iranian-sponsored attack,” Netanyahu said, without providing additional details.
Burnham’s statements were based on intelligence that has been gathered as a result of the investigation, two senior U.S intelligence officials briefed on the matter told NBC News.
Two calls early Sunday U.K. time alerted authorities that the five people could have been up to something inappropriate, according to one official.
One call to police came from one of the five men in the group at about 12:45 a.m., the official said.
British media previously reported that call.
A local farmer called police around 1:30 a.m. local time — a call that police initially cited as the reason for the tip on the group’s activities, the official said.
No charges have been filed against the men, all in their 20s and from London, who were arrested after three vehicles were seen moving toward RAF Fairford, a British air force station about 90 minutes west of London.
Counterterrorism police later took over the case after a major incident was declared and dozens of homes were evacuated, disrupting life in the normally quiet, rural community of the Cotswolds.
