LONDON — There are strong indications Tehran played a part in a security incident outside a British air base that U.S. forces use to facilitate strikes on Iran, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Wednesday.
Burnham said he had chaired an emergency security meeting this week after the incident, which unfolded in the early hours of Sunday. Five men, all British nationals, were arrested on suspicion of terror and explosives offenses and were released on bail earlier this week.
“We have been waiting to confirm what we could say, but we can now confirm our belief that Iran played a part,” he said in an interview with Sky News.
“This remains, though, a complex and very serious police investigation, so I can’t say any more at this stage,” he added.
The British Parliament is in recess, but Burnham said he “wouldn’t hesitate” to recall lawmakers “should that be necessary.”
Iran has denied any involvement in the incident.
“The embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in London categorically rejects and strongly condemns the recent unfounded and malicious speculations published by some British individuals and media outlets attempting to link Iran to arrest of five suspects in the vicinity of RAF Fairford base,” the Iranian Embassy in Britain said in a statement on X on Monday.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Burnham was wrongly accusing Iran of playing a role in the incident in a post on X on Wednesday.
“PM Burnham says the UK Government “can confirm our belief that we believe Iran to have played a part” in the RAF Fairford incident,” Araghchi wrote. “I can confirm Iran’s belief that releasing supposed terrorists working for foreign states really says it all. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”
President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. is closely examining the incident.
Asked if he was planning any response to Iran, Trump replied, “Well, we are. Look, we are studying it right now. We’re studying it. We’re studying it very hard.”
“UK did release a number of people that we caught wanting to blow up a base,” Trump added. “We caught them early, and I’m trying to figure out if that’s for real — that they actually did it. Maybe they did it for a reason, but we’re going to know about that this afternoon, so we’ll report on that.”
Burnham’s statements were based on intelligence that has been gathered as a result of the investigation into the incident, two senior intelligence officials briefed on the matter told NBC News.
There were two calls that were made early Sunday morning U.K. time that alerted authorities that the five individuals could have been up to something inappropriate, according to one official.
One call to police came from one of the five men in the group at approximately 12:45 am local time, the official said.
British media previously reported this call.
A second call was placed by a local farmer to police around 1:30 am local time — a call that was cited by police initially as the reason for the tip on the group’s activities, according to the official.
So far, no charges have been filed against the men, all in their 20s and from London, who were arrested after three vehicles were seen moving toward RAF Fairford, a British air force station about 90 minutes west of London.
Counterterrorism police later took over the case after a major incident was declared and dozens of homes were evacuated, disrupting life in the normally quiet, rural community of the Cotswolds.
Residents were allowed to return home Monday.
In an update Tuesday, the head of counterterrorism policing, Laurence Taylor, said no explosives had been found in three vans belonging to the suspects, although “a quantity of petrol” had been recovered.
“Those vehicles have been subject to extensive examination, with the support of military assets and forensic experts, and we can confirm that no improvised explosive devices were found,” he said, adding that investigators had searched properties in London.
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In the United Kingdom, police can usually hold people for up to 24 hours before they have to charge or release them, although officers can apply to extend that time if they suspect a serious crime has been committed. Suspects arrested under the Terrorism Act can be held without charge for up to 14 days.
Tuesday’s update came after Trump told reporters he was disappointed about the decision to free the men on bail.
“I’m just disappointed that they caught terrorists — they did a good job, and then they sort of let them go,” he said, adding, “How do you give bail to a terrorist?”
Asked if it was a long-standing investigation, Trump replied, “A long-standing. Yeah, we were involved in it.”
“They put them out on bail. I assume they have, they have them watched closely. But these were serious people, seriously bad people, and they should not have done that,” he added.
Burnham said Wednesday that the men were released with the “strictest possible bail conditions,” telling the BBC: “The authorities have this under the strongest grip and closest control, and I can assure you of that.”
Separately, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the incident “clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor” — an allegation British officials had not confirmed until Burnham’s comments Wednesday.
Burnham’s predecessor, Keir Starmer, gave permission for the United States to use its bases for “specific and limited defensive” operations against Iran. Earlier this year, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told the semiofficial Tasnim news agency that “any base used to facilitate aggression against Iranian territory is considered a legitimate target,” specifically citing bomber flights taking off from Fairford.
