Iran summons British diplomat after UK arrests seven nationals

Tehran and London trade accusations after arrests in Britain

The Iranian foreign ministry summoned the British charge d'affaires in Tehran after UK police arrested seven Iranian nationals in two operations and the case spilled into a diplomatic dispute.

According to Iranian state media, Tehran objected to what it called unjustified arrests. British police said three of the men later appeared in a London court charged with conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service, with Iran named in the allegation. The other four were detained on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act and have since been released from custody while inquiries continue.

The Home Office said the men were irregular migrants who arrived in Britain between 2016 and 2022. UK police also said the suspected spying covered a period from August 2024 to February 2025, suggesting the investigation had been under way for months before the court appearance.

Iranian officials responded by framing the arrests as politically motivated and as an attempt to exert pressure on the Islamic Republic. That language fits a familiar pattern in Tehran, where security cases involving Iranians abroad are often treated as evidence of hostility rather than ordinary law-enforcement action.

The dispute lands at a time when the UK already classifies Iran as a high-priority foreign influence concern. Britain has placed the country on the highest tier of its foreign influence register, requiring the Islamic Republic to register activities aimed at political influence in the UK.

With one case now in court and another still under investigation, the episode is likely to keep straining already tense relations between London and Tehran. For now, the facts publicly available point to a complex mix of espionage allegations, suspected terrorism planning and a diplomatic response that has moved from police stations to foreign ministries.

The allegations also sit within a wider pattern of counterintelligence concern. Britain says Iran must register activity aimed at political influence, and that designation means the current arrests will be read not just as a policing matter but as another test of how the two governments handle shadow-state accusations.

For now, the three men in court face a charge linked to foreign intelligence work, while the four others remain under investigation over a suspected terrorist act. The split case shows why officials on both sides are treating the file as both a security issue and a diplomatic one.

The case is likely to be watched closely because espionage allegations can linger even when criminal charges are still being tested in court. That leaves both capitals with incentives to keep the language sharp and the facts tight, since any overstatement could complicate later diplomacy.