British-Iranian citizen arrested in London for alleged plot against RAF Fairford base

LondonTwenty-four hours after British Prime Minister Andy Burnham stated that there were "solid indications" of Iranian involvement in the alleged plot against the British Royal Air Force base in Fairford, Scotland Yard, London's Metropolitan Police, has arrested a 25-year-old man with dual British and Iranian nationality in the last few hours. The man was arrested on Thursday in Westminster, in central London, on charges of preparing terrorist acts. Another man, a 26-year-old British citizen, was questioned. Police have searched two properties in this central district of the capital.

The investigation thus adds new elements to a rather convoluted incident, straddling the line between an international thriller and a Miss Marple English countryside mystery novel. Over the weekend, five British citizens between the ages of 23 and 25 –who were released on bail on Monday– were arrested in the vicinity of Fairford. The suspects had arrived at dawn in three vans. The base, which houses hundreds of American military personnel, has been key in the punitive operations of the United States' war against Iran. A local resident, who was returning home after a party, saw the vehicles and a group of hooded men, and raised the alarm at 1:36 a.m. on Sunday.

There were even more complications, however. On Wednesday, the newspaper The Times reported that one of the five detainees had called emergency services almost an hour before the local resident raised the alarm. Subsequently, about eighty families from Whelford, the village closest to the base, were evacuated and could not return home until Monday evening. Throughout this time, specialists from the bomb disposal unit searched the vans. They found nothing, other than a certain amount of gasoline.

The release of the five detainees was heavily criticized by both United States President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who denounced the Iranian hand in the plot. And, as already noted, it was not until later that premier Andy Burnham joined the same theory. "I wouldn't say it lightly," he stated, describing the investigation as "complex, serious, and still ongoing."

Vicki Evans, national counter-terrorism coordinator, continued with the same explanations that London's Metropolitan Police had offered throughout the week. And yesterday, Thursday, she stated that investigators are examining "all possible lines of inquiry," including the possibility that there may have been "intervention by a foreign state." The Iranian hypothesis could be based on the statement in which, in July, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard warned that any base used to attack Iran would be considered a "legitimate target".