A former BBC journalist has said the UK government will “pay a heavy price” for its lack of action against the Iranian regime, which could lead to more “threats” and “operations” in Britain, after the stabbing of an Iranian journalist in London. Sima Sabet, a former journalist at the BBC World Service and the dissident channel Iran International, said there would be more transnational repression unless the government issued a “deterrent signal” to the Iranian regime. Sabet’s former colleague at Iran International, Pouria Zeraati, was stabbed in the capital in late March, reviving conversations about the safety of Iranian journalists and dissidents in the UK. Although investigations by counter-terrorism officers are continuing, the three suspects are thought to have fled the country after the attack. Sabet was told by police to leave her home after the incident. Speaking to the Guardian from an undisclosed location, Sabet said she has been left without a “public life” due to the threats she faces and that she hardly leaves her home and feels “less safe than ever”. She said: “I am a UK citizen. Why should I be fighting for my safety?”
Last year, a plot to assassinate Sabet and fellow presenter Fardad Farahzad was uncovered, evidence suggesting it was planned by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), one of the most powerful paramilitary groups in the Middle East. The Iranian embassy has rejected the claims. Sabet said her warning about the Iranian regime was not being taken sufficiently seriously by the UK government. “I think they do not consider the greatness of the threat to the UK nationals here,” she said. “I’m grateful to counter-terrorism warnings and requests that I leave my address, but we need a deterrent, a clear policy to send a signal to Tehran that these kinds of activities are not going to be tolerated in the UK.”
The journalist said there was a risk of more attacks on British soil and that the escalating conflict in the Middle East made it easier for the Iranian regime to recruit individuals to harm people in the UK. “If the UK is not willing to take any clear policy and clear activity, they definitely are going to pay a heavy price … Tthey are going to carry out operations here again and again and again so we are going to observe more violations of UK sovereignty, we are going to receive further threats from the IRGC,” she said. Despite growing cross-party pressure, Rishi Sunak has so far resisted calls to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, arguing that it could sever the UK’s diplomatic link with Tehran. Sabet, who reported heavily on the protests against the Iranian regime after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022, criticised this approach: “My question is, what results have they achieved by keeping those diplomatic channels open? I cannot keep quiet because my life is in danger, but I have every right to feel safe in the country where I am a citizen.” The government revealed earlier this year that at least 15 threats had been made by the Iranian regime to intimidate or kill British nationals or UK-linked individuals since 2022. Zeraati, who has returned to work after receiving treatment in hospital, said he believed the attack was linked to his job. The Iranian chargé d’affaires in the UK, which serves as the head of its diplomatic mission, has denied any link between the attack on Zeraati and the Iranian regime. Negin Shiraghaei, a former BBC journalist, said Iranian activists and journalists were living “in fear” in the UK since the attack on Zeraati and that much of the Iranian community was “weary of war and the tension escalating to actual full on war”. Saeed Khalilirad, an Iranian activist and psychotherapist living in the UK, added that there was a “high level of anxiety” within the community and that he had had to make changes to his lifestyle to feel safe. He said: “Because of these threats, going out to work, to anywhere, we have to have a different approach than everyone else.” A government spokesperson said: “The UK government, law enforcement and our international partners continue to work together to identify, deter and respond to threats from Iran. “We will continue to take strong action against Iran while they threaten people in the UK and around the world. The UK has sanctioned more than 400 Iranian individuals and entities, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in its entirety.”