A woman holds an Iranian flag near an anti-US billboard depicting U.S. President Donald Trump and the Strait of Hormuz, in Tehran, Iran, May 25, 2026. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

A growing series of arrests, counterterrorism investigations, and espionage cases across Europe and the United States has intensified fears that Iran is expanding its covert operations abroad through proxy networks, criminal gangs, and foreign operatives targeting dissidents, Jewish communities, and pro-Israel figures.

In the United Kingdom, a Greek national was charged Friday with allegedly conducting surveillance for a foreign intelligence service, believed to be of the Iranian regime, targeting a journalist from the London-based news outlet Iran International, a network known for its outspoken criticism of the Islamic Republic.

After being taken into custody last week, Ioannis Aidinidis – a 46-year-old Georgian-born man living in Munich, Germany – has now been charged under Britain’s National Security Act with espionage offenses.

He reportedly photographed vehicles, homes, and other locations linked to the reporter, and is also accused of concealing a covert camera capable of transmitting data to unknown recipients.

Prosecutors also said additional evidence indicates he conducted surveillance on an Italian defense company while traveling between Britain and Italy.

According to court documents, data recovered from Aidinidis’ phone suggested he was receiving financial support from individuals overseas, whom investigators suspect were linked to the Iranian regime.

Now, Aidinidis has been remanded in custody ahead of his next court appearance scheduled for June 19 at Central London Criminal Court.

Far from an isolated case, Iranian-linked efforts to target dissidents abroad have repeatedly drawn concern from Western security services.

In April, three individuals were charged over an attempted arson attack targeting a building linked to Iran International in northwest London. Authorities have been investigating possible Iranian connections to the incident, against the backdrop of a wider series of arson attacks targeting Jewish sites across the British capital.

In a separate case, Italian authorities have placed two Iranian nationals under investigation in Milan and ordered searches of their homes over allegations they threatened fellow Iranians opposed to the regime.

According to Reuters, prosecutors suspect the two individuals of aggravated threats and of participating in activities intended to support terrorism and undermine democratic institutions.

In Denmark, intelligence officials have warned that Iran is playing an increasingly prominent role in the country’s evolving terrorism threat landscape, with recent assessments pointing to a shift in the nature of extremist risks facing the nation.

Finn Borch Andersen, head of Denmark’s national security and intelligence service, noted the growing role of hostile state actors in terror-related threats, specifically identifying Iran as a major danger to Israeli and Jewish targets as well as Iranian dissidents living across Europe.

“The threat from Iran stems from its intelligence services, which rely on criminal networks and recruited operatives across Europe to plan and execute attacks,” Andersen said in a statement.

In neighboring Sweden, the Swedish Security Service has also accused Iran of exploiting criminal gangs to carry out acts of violence targeting Israeli interests and Iranian opposition figures inside the country.

In the United States, authorities announced earlier this week that a 37-year-old New York man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for participating in an Iranian government-backed plot targeting Masih Alinejad, the prominent Iranian-American journalist, author, and human rights activist.

The accused had previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit stalking and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

“Tehran attempted to murder a US journalist in the United States simply because she exposed a few of that regime’s many abuses,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said in a statement.

US officials also announced an eight-count indictment against Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, a dual Iranian-Iraqi national accused of terrorism-related offenses tied to nearly 20 attacks across Europe and the United States, including providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

Al-Saadi, a senior figure within the Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah, a Shiite paramilitary group closely aligned with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was accused of coordinating attacks in Europe through the newly emerged terrorist group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya.

US and European officials have repeatedly warned of a rising threat level across Western countries from pro-Iranian extremist groups, specifically citing the expanding activities of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya and signaling broader concerns about coordinated operations in Europe.

In recent weeks, Western security agencies have raised growing alarm that Tehran is increasingly turning to covert operatives, proxy networks, and criminal intermediaries to target dissidents, Jewish communities, and pro-Israel figures across Europe and North America.

Since the start of the US-Israeli campaign against Iran earlier this year, European governments have tightened domestic security amid mounting fears that Tehran could activate proxy networks across the continent to retaliate against US, Israeli, and Jewish targets.

But even with increased security and heightened intelligence monitoring, Europe has seen a string of attacks targeting Jewish and Israeli institutions, several of them claimed by the newly emerged Iran-linked terrorist organization.

Just in April, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya claimed responsibility for a wave of attacks across the UK, Germany, North Macedonia, Belgium, and the Netherlands, many of them concentrated in London.

Since emerging in early March, the group has taken credit for at least 15 attacks against Jewish and Western targets across Europe.