UK says Iran may be linked to alleged airbase plot, drawing angry denial

The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said there are “strong indications” that Iran played a role in an alleged security incident at an airbase used by the United States, prompting a forceful denial by Tehran.

Burnham told the BBC broadcaster on Wednesday that investigations into the suspected plot at the Royal Air Force base in Fairford were ongoing. Five British men in their 20s were arrested near the base on Sunday, on suspicion of “terrorism” and explosives offences. They were all released on bail a day later.

“There are strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened over the weekend at RAF Fairford, but of course it remains an ongoing, complex and serious police investigation,” Burnham said. “We are working closely with our colleagues in the United States of America.”

He did not provide details about what the suspects were planning or why the UK thinks Iran was involved.

But the prime minister said he would “update people more in due course”.

Burnham’s comments marked the first time a British official had publicly linked Iran to the events at the base.

Iran, however, has strongly denied any involvement in the incident and the country’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, hit back at Burnham’s allegations.

“PM Burnham says the UK Government ‘can confirm our belief that we believe Iran to have played a part’ in the RAF Fairford incident,” he wrote on X. “I can confirm Iran’s belief that releasing supposed terrorists working for foreign states really says it all. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”

The RAF base 160km west of London has been used by US bombers during decades of conflicts in the Middle East, including the US and Israel’s war on Iran, which began in February. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has previously said that it considers any base used to attack its territory a legitimate target.

After three days of investigations, including using a bomb disposal team, police said Tuesday they had found no explosives in the vehicles, but they had retrieved a “quantity of petrol”.

Top US officials have meanwhile criticised the decision to grant the suspects bail, with President Donald Trump saying “I wouldn’t have done that” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying a lot of people were “disturbed” by the move.

Laurence Taylor, the head of British counterterror policing, said on Tuesday that the suspects remain under investigation and the decision to grant bail was grounded in “experience and strategy”.

He said a line of inquiry is whether the suspected offences were committed by “proxies or individuals, either knowingly or unknowingly, working on behalf of a foreign state”.

Adding ⁠to the intrigue around Sunday’s events, The Times reported that one of the men called emergency services shortly before being arrested in the early hours.

“Whether it was surveillance, a ‘dry run’ to test security or a stunt to ‌send a message to the British government are all under consideration,” The Times said, adding that investigators were unsure whether he got cold feet or it was part ‌of ‌a plan.

The newspaper did not cite its sources.

Police declined to comment on whether one of the suspects had made the call.