British counter-terrorism police said on Thursday that they had arrested a man with British and Iranian nationality on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts, as part of an investigation into a security incident that occurred on Sunday near RAF Fairford in south-west England.
British-Iranian man arrested in central London
Police said in a statement that the suspect was 25 and had been detained in central London as part of the ongoing investigation. The arrest followed a bomb alert near the base, which the US military has used in recent months to carry out missions against Iran.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said in an interview with the BBC that there were “strong indications that Iran played a role in what happened over the weekend at the Royal Air Force base at Fairford”. He also said that Britain was working closely with the United States on the incident.
Tehran rejects allegations and summons British ambassador
In response to those remarks, Iran summoned the British ambassador to Tehran, Hugo Shorter. Iran’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs, Majid Takht Ravanchi, denounced what he described as the “empty and absurd allegations” levelled against Iran by British authorities. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in a post on X that Burnham was “knocking on the wrong door”.
British authorities had arrested five British men in their twenties on Sunday on suspicion of involvement in terrorism- and explosives-related offences near Fairford in western England. The incident prompted a major security response and raised concerns among Western countries, while the nature of the threat remained unclear.
The authorities later released the five men on bail without charging them, and police said their release was subject to strict conditions. Counter-terrorism police said they were examining the possibility that a foreign state was involved in the incident. The security operation began in the early hours of Sunday after police received “a body of information”.
That information included a report from a local farmer who became suspicious of men she saw near the base in three vans. Investigators confirmed that petrol had been found inside the vans used by the men, but said they had found no improvised explosive device or explosives at the site.
British media, including The Times, reported that one of the five suspects had alerted police to the incident, while police did not comment on the reports. US President Donald Trump said he would not have released the five men. Trump had earlier said that those involved had planned to cause “serious damage”, while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pointed to the possibility of “foreign involvement” in the incident.
