Iran’s plot to murder two journalists in Britain FOILED after ‘attacker turned double agent for the West’: Foreign Secretary slaps Tehran with fresh sanctions after spies ‘planned to stab anti-regime reporters in London’

The British government has imposed sanctions on two Iranian officials after a plot to kill two journalists on British soil was uncovered.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials Mohammed Ansari and Muhammed Abd al-Razek Kanafani were among seven people sanctioned by the US and Britain for threatening to kill two journalists from a dissident news channel in London.

A group within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Unit 840, was also sanctioned today for its involvement in the planned stabbing of two journalists from Iran International, based in London’s Chiswick.

Ansari and Kanafani were allegedly involved in a plot, codenamed ‘The Wedding’, to stab Fardad Farahzad and Sima Sabet to death. The plot was originally supposed to involve a car bomb.

The two Iranian officials, both high-ranking, were part of Unit 840, known for carrying out assassinations abroad.

British Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron warned Iran that threats on British soil would not be tolerated, telling ITV, which first exposed the plot:

“We have imposed sanctions on several individuals and one organization associated with Iran because, quite frankly, they carried out threats to kill people here in this country.

‘Completely unacceptable and that is why we have taken action. These sanctions consist of asset freezes and travel bans, and this applies to 400 people against whom we have imposed sanctions in the past.

‘It is completely unacceptable behavior and we will always respond quickly and appropriately.’

The plan initially involved a car bomb, but later changed to a simple stabbing at their respective homes, which was believed to have a higher chance of success.

A people smuggler was offered £158,000 to kill the couple but later became a double agent and began leaking details of the plot to a Western intelligence agency.

His supervisors told him in October 2022: ‘This London thing has to be done under all circumstances.

“We have to finish them off.”

The original plan to kill them at the industrial estate that served as the headquarters for the dissident radio station fell through after Unit 840 spotted security guards protecting the studios.

The smuggler told ITV News at the time: ‘It had to happen where they live, in their home, in their home, in the lifts, on the stairs or in the corridors.’

The Met Police told the broadcaster about the threats, and the directors chose to make the information public, saying in a statement in November: ‘Two of our British-Iranian journalists have been made aware in recent days of an increase in threats. to them.

“The Metropolitan Police have now formally notified both journalists that these threats pose an immediate, credible and significant risk to their lives and the lives of their families.”

But the channel’s officials referred to two of the directors in their November statement, unaware that two of the journalists were targets of the plot.

Ansari and Kanafani were not the only ones to target Iran International. In December, a terror scout was found guilty of spying on the channel, claiming he was “amazed by the architecture” of the business park where the channel is located.

Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev, 31, made seven videos in February detailing the security arrangements of Volant Media, the Persian television channel Iran International, based in Chiswick Business Park in west London.

Following a trial at the Old Bailey, the Chechnya-born Austrian was found guilty of attempting to gather information about the news organisation, described as an ‘independent news channel in Farsi that criticized the current regime in Iran’.

Prosecutors said during his trial that he showed great interest in Building 11, home of Volant Media.

Guards said Dovtaev, who was wearing a baseball and a face mask at the time, retreated to a nearby Starbucks after realizing he was being observed, they added.

“Before that, he would move around with his phone and hold it up in a motion that looked like he was recording a movie or taking a photo.”

Iran has placed itself at the center of world politics in recent weeks after the US claimed it was supporting militants in Jordan who killed three American soldiers on Sunday.

The US today named the three slain soldiers, the youngest of whom was only 23 years old.

Sergeant William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia, Specialist Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia, and Specialist Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia, were all killed in the drone strike, while another 40 troops were killed. also injured.

It was the first deadly attack on US troops since war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October and marks a major escalation in tensions that have engulfed the Middle East.

The United States is trying to determine exactly why the nearly 350 troops at the base in Jordan known as Tower 22 were unable to stop the drone.

Two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a U.S. drone approached the base around the same time the attack drone entered. One of the officials said the attack drone also flew low, factors that may have contributed to it being missed by base defenses.