A news anchor for a Persian-language TV channel based in London was attacked in front of his home, according to the station, Iran International. Pouria Zeraati, 36, was stabbed multiple times by a group outside his residence. While the Metropolitan Police has assigned anti-terrorism officers to investigate the incident, the victim remains stable in hospital. In light of the victim’s work as a journalist and the numerous threats toward his colleagues, counter-terrorism command unit Commander Dominic Murphy said officers were keeping an open mind as to any motivation behind the assault.
The London-based Iran International became one of the primary sources of information during anti-government protests in Iran in 2022. Two British-Iranian reporters associated with the station were warned of a possible risk to their lives by the police later that year. An armed presence of police was set up in the vicinity of the channel’s studios at the time, with concrete barriers installed outside the building. Meanwhile, Iran’s intelligence minister, Ismail Khatib, announced Iran International was a terrorist organization at that same moment in Tehran.
The station, which the government accused of inciting protests against the Iranian regime, temporarily suspended operations in London in February 2023, relocating studios to Washington DC due to “a significant escalation in state-backed threats from Iran.” In December of that year, the Met Police arrested Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev, an Austrian national, on suspicion of gathering information that would aid terrorist acts. According to the authorities, he filmed the security arrangements outside the Chiswick Business Park building that housed Iran International. Since the beginning of 2022, as many as 15 plots aimed at kidnapping or killing UK-based people believed to be opponents of the Iranian administration have been thwarted by London’s police department.
Tory MP Alicia Kearns, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, responded to the latest event, calling it “deeply upsetting” and alleging that Iran was “hunting down those brave enough to speak out against the regime.” However, she claimed that the UK and its allies lack a clear strategy to safeguard individuals in their nations from Iran. Additionally, Lord Cameron announced sanctions on several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders earlier this year after they were “discovered in an ITV investigation into plots to assassinate two television presenters from news channel Iran International on UK soil.” The sanctions included asset freezes, travel bans, and shone a light on “the Iranian officials and gangs involved in activity aimed at undermining, silencing, and disrupting the democratic freedoms we cherish in the UK.
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More