A prominent exiled Iranian journalist was stabbed outside his home in London on Friday following numerous threats that were made against his television station by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Iran International said that Pouria Zeraati, the host of its “Last Word” show, was stabbed by a group as he walked out of his home. He was rushed to the hospital with injuries but is listed in “stable condition,” the report said.
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that “due to the victim’s occupation as a journalist at a Persian-language media organisation based in the UK, coupled with the fact that there has been a number of threats directed towards this group of journalists in recent times, the incident is being investigated by specialist officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.”
The report added that the U.K.’s intelligence services are aware of the attack.
“This is deeply upsetting, Iran International had to shut down its UK arm for a short period, it only recently returned to the air from London,” said British MP and Chair of Foreign Affairs Committee Alicia Kearns. “Whilst we don’t know the circumstances of this attack, Iran continues to hunt down those brave enough to speak out against the regime. Yet I remain unconvinced that we and our allies have clear strategies to protect people in our countries from them, and protect our interests abroad.”
The attacks comes after Iran has repeatedly threatened journalists at the television station, including offering a criminal $200,000 to assassinate Iran International journalists Sima Sabet and Fardad Farahzad.
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Iranian spies planned to target Iran International’s studios in London with a car bomb, the report said. However, they ditched their plan after leaders in the IRGC decided that a knife attack at the target’s homes would be more effective because the studios had “many security guards.”
It was only a matter of time before Iranian assassins and thugs actually hit one of their targets in the U.S. or UK.
Wishing @pouriazeraati a speedy recovery and hoping that the UK government starts getting serious about the regime’s threats.
Sanction the IRGC for starters… https://t.co/HQGV9dvvYo
— Gabriel Noronha (@GLNoronha) March 29, 2024
Matt Jukes, head of Counter Terrorism Policing in Britain, said in a “60 Minutes” interview last year that Iran uses proxies to carry out assassination attempts because they are typically “not being tracked by intelligence or security agencies.”
He said that in the U.K. had foiled 15 Iranian kidnapping and assassination attempts in the last year.
“I have been involved in national security policing for over 20 years,” he said. “What we’ve seen in the last 18 months is a real acceleration.”