Iran sees ‘false flag’ operations after UK blames IRGC for airbase incident

Tehran, Iran – Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned the United Kingdom’s attribution of an alleged plot near a military airbase in the town of Fairford to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which it views as part of a greater Western effort.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham told Parliament on Monday that the suspected plot last month against the Royal Air Force base was “highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran” and “almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard”.

Burnham promised action against what he described as Iran-linked “criminal networks” and their financing networks.

The UK announced sanctions against two Iranian nationals over alleged “hostile activity” at RAF Fairford in southern England.

It follows an incident around the base, which hosted US military aircraft, in the early hours of September 27, when five British men in their 20s suspected of “terrorism” and explosives offences were arrested. The men were not charged and were released on police bail. Another two men were also arrested and later released.

Information about a suspected security threat to RAF Fairford and the events remains opaque.

In a statement late Monday, the Iranian ministry described the UK’s claims of an Iranian role as “an ugly plot” that would also serve to “evade accountability for Britain’s participation” in the ongoing war against Iran on February 28.

It said the UK had failed to provide sufficient evidence to back its claims and rejected the accusations of Iranian involvement as a “clumsy false flag operation”.

“Britain’s track record of fabricating security claims against other countries, which have in some cases led to damaging tensions and conflicts in West Asia, is well known,” the ministry said, without elaborating.

British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said investigators assessed the coordinator to be a known individual based in Iran, although she did not name that person or disclose the supporting communications, financial records or other intelligence.

RAF Fairford is a prominent base for United States aircraft that have participated in the war on Iran, which began on February 28 following US and Israeli strikes that killed several Iranian leaders and officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

After news of the incident, the US withdrew approximately a dozen B-1 bombers from the Fairford base.

US media cited unnamed sources as alleging there was intelligence suggesting the bombers could run the risk of being hit by small drone attacks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly claimed at the start of October that his administration warned the UK about a plot.

“We gave the Brits the intel that there was going to be an attack, and it’s an Iranian-sponsored attack, and pretty much the next day they slapped sanctions on us,” he said during an interview with US broadcaster Fox News.

Netanyahu was criticising UK measures in response to the illegal expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank amid a diplomatic dispute.

Earlier this month, Tehran grouped the Fairford incident with allegations surrounding the Flydubai cockpit attack – which authorities in the United Arab Emirates claimed was a “suicide” mission to crash the plane at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.

“I think even a schoolchild recognised how amateurishly it was designed,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said about the aircraft incident.

He also argued that such incidents were being manufactured to assign blame and justify a war facing public opposition in the US and elsewhere.

IRNA, the official news website of the Iranian government, argued in an analysis last week that the Western-led vote at the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to refer the case of Iran’s nuclear programme to the United Nations Security Council could be classified as another attempt to pressure Iran to capitulate to US demands.

It said increasing reports over recent weeks attributing a major role and responsibility to Tehran for the considerable battlefield advances gained by the Houthis in Yemen pointed to a “plan to identify Iran as the main reason for insecurity” on the regional and global stage.

“The series of suspicious incidents recently, which have been attributed to Iran by the US president and senior officials without offering any evidence, appear to be a coordinated wave to smear Iran,” IRNA said.

But UK officials have advanced undeterred with measures against Iran in reaction to the Fairford incident.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband summoned Iran’s ambassador and sanctioned one person identified as an IRGC counterespionage chief, and another described as a facilitator for a criminal network. Measures included asset freezes and travel bans. But the two named men were not explicitly identified as Fairford’s organisers.

The UK government in July designated the IRGC as a “terrorist” organisation.

On Friday, the UK was among 32 countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the US, to “condemn in the strongest terms Iran’s use of violent attacks, including the acts of lethal plotting, arson, sabotage, cyberattacks, and other hybrid activities against us and our partners”.

“We recognise the United Kingdom’s attribution of Iran’s involvement in the incident at RAF Fairford on 27 September. The UK has also concluded this event demonstrates the IRGC’s continued willingness to project hostile activity beyond its borders through covert networks and proxy actors,” they said in a joint statement.