Iran has denied any ties to the Fairford Airbase incident in the UK, denouncing evidence-free claims that it was involved as “Iranophobia.”
Hours after call from a farmer to the military airbase at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, southwestern England, on Saturday night, police arrested five men driving three white vans, on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act.
Britain has ramped up pro-war rhetoric in the last week, with the BBC running an article titled “Are you psychologically prepared for war?” while Sky UK ran a reality show ‘The Wargame’ featuring politicians defining strategy in a ‘war room’ following a hypothetical attack by Russia. London’s belligerent media thus went into overdrive upon reports of a possible incident near the airbase.
Police cordoned off the vicinity of the base and evacuated over 80 homes. According to the BBC, a bomb squad worked at the scene, using a remote-controlled robot to inspect the vans, which were parked in a wooded area.
However, the men were released on bail the following day after “extensive interviews and enquiries,” according to Laurence Taylor, the head of the UK’s National Counter Terrorism Policing. No suspicious materials were found.
Taylor said police had begun investigating whether the offense was “committed by proxies, or individuals either knowingly or unknowingly, working on behalf of a foreign state” including “Russia, Iran or an Islamist state,” according to Reuters citing an anonymous security source.
Iran’s mission in London said in a statement on X on Monday that “The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in London categorically rejects and strongly condemns the recent unfounded and malicious speculations published by some British individuals and media outlets attempting to link Iran to [the] arrest of five suspects in the vicinity of RAF Fairford base.”
“Such fabricated speculations” would only “fuel Iranophobia propaganda in the UK.”
Although Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned in July that the UK would become a “definite and legitimate target” if it supported the US bombing campaign, Tehran has not claimed responsibility for any attacks outside the Middle East.
Iran has fired missiles and drones at Gulf states, which it described as legitimate targets for retaliation because they host American bases used to launch attacks against Iran.