Iranian journalists next on target as Iran continues crackdown on protesters
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Salma Hossein
- . November 17, 2022
- . Update: November 17, 2022 3:23 pm
According to the analysts and Western authorities, Iranians abroad, including the journalists, are high on target list of the intelligence agencies and authorities in Iran as the violent crackdown on protesters at home is continuously ramping up.
In the UK, police have recently warned of a rise in “credible threats by Iranian security forces against two British Iranian journalists and their families”, as they have deployed additional security to their residences and offices. The development comes as Britain’s domestic spy service, MI5, said that it “found at least 10 potential threats to kidnap or even kill British or U.K. based individuals perceived as enemies of Iran’s government this year”.
“Iranian intelligence agencies are prepared to take reckless action to attack opponents in Western countries or to try to lure them back to Iran,” the head of MI5, Ken McCallum, said in his remarks on Wednesday. “No one should be under any illusion about the breadth and variety of the threats we face in 2022,” Mr. McCallum told an audience inside Thames House, the security service’s headquarters in London. “We have seen at least 10 such potential threats since January alone,” he revealed.
Read | Iran Protesters Mark Deadly 2019 Crackdown With Fresh Protests
Targeting Iranians abroad “is a pattern of behavior that is escalating in the context of this uprising,” said Sanam Vakil, deputy director of the Middle East North Africa (MENA) program at the London based Chatham House think tank. “It really speaks to the state’s perception that the Iranians abroad are really stoking dissent. … They feel that if they can silence or send strong messages to this diaspora that it can reverberate domestically,” she said.
Iran has a long history of attempts to kidnap or even kill its citizens abroad if they raise voice against the regime in Tehran. Members of opposition parties and minority groups, such as Iranian Arabs and Kurds, have been the frequent targets of Iran’s authoritarian regime that views women and freedom of speech as biggest enemies.
