they were detained<\/a>\u00a0when three vans were spotted in the countryside near RAF Fairford, a UK-owned base that the United States has used in its war against Iran. The base has been a focus of antiwar protests.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n
Laurence Taylor, the head of counterterrorism policing in the UK, said the men would be subject to \u201cstringent\u201d bail conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be very clear, this does not mean that the investigation is over,\u201d Taylor said in a statement outside police headquarters in London. \u201cThey absolutely remain under investigation as we explore multiple lines of enquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators have not determined whether a foreign government was behind the alleged plot and are examining possible links to Iran, Russia or non-state armed groups. Police have not publicly tied Iran to the arrests.<\/p>\n
The men are being investigated under the Explosives Act and on suspicion of \u201cpreparation of a terrorist act\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018Iranophobia propaganda\u2019<\/p>\n
Taylor did not mention Iran by name, but acknowledged public interest in whether the geopolitical climate had played a role.<\/p>\n
\u201cBe assured, we are considering this from every possible angle, including that this may be actively committed by proxies or individuals either knowingly or unknowingly working on behalf of a foreign state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s embassy in London rejected the suggestion.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Monday, it said it \u201ccategorically rejects and strongly condemns the recent unfounded and malicious speculations\u201d by some British individuals and news outlets, warning that the claims would feed \u201cIranophobia propaganda\u201d in the UK.<\/p>\n
The embassy also said Iran reserved the right to \u201ctake appropriate legal measures\u201d.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said the incident \u201cmight be\u201d connected to Iran, adding that he would not have released the suspects on bail. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have done that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Trump had said the suspects wanted to do \u201cbig damage\u201d and had been under investigation by authorities in the UK and the US. The assertion prompted questions in the UK news media about how closely the men had been monitored, given how near they came to the base.<\/p>\n
\u2018Partial picture\u2019<\/p>\n
The UK government gave the US authorisation to use bombers based at RAF Fairford to strike Iranian missile sites that were attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had said in July that the Fairford base was a legitimate target.<\/p>\n
UK police were alerted on Sunday by a farmer who reported that three suspicious vehicles appeared to be heading towards the base. The farmer, who has not been publicly identified, told reporters she saw \u201chooded and masked men\u201d running into fields and estimated there were as many as 10 people.<\/p>\n
She said she believed her call to the 999 emergency line had foiled any plot.<\/p>\n
The UK\u2019s national news agency, PA, reported, without citing sources, that police had not found viable explosives.<\/p>\n
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting told the BBC broadcaster that the farmer had only a \u201cpartial picture\u201d of the investigation. He did not elaborate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that Iran and their proxies wish to do us harm,\u201d Streeting said. \u201cWe know that they hate our democracy, and we know that we regularly have to thwart Iranian attempts to threaten either our interests or indeed our allies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Separately, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said on Monday that the UK must be prepared to \u201cconfront\u201d all security threats facing Europe and the world, adding: \u201cWe will act against the proxies of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Andy Burnham, meanwhile, chaired a meeting of the government\u2019s emergency response committee over the incident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five men arrested near RAF Fairford base out on bail, as Iran condemns \u2018malicious speculation\u2019 about its alleged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[141,59,57,58,31283,585,151,50,288,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-786002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-donald-trump","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-investigation","tag-iran","tag-military","tag-news","tag-police","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}