Iran’s covert reach widens across Europe as spy convictions, cyberstrikes and sleeper-cell alerts expose Tehran’s global footprint

Two Iranian nationals were convicted in a British court on Thursday of spying on journalists and critics of the Iranian government, the latest in a string of cases that have sharpened Western alarm over Tehran’s intelligence operations beyond the Middle East. The verdicts landed as France accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guard of an unprecedented cyberattack and a senior United Arab Emirates official warned that Iranian sleeper cells are operating abroad.

The rulings come as the Trump administration sustains its economic pressure campaign against Tehran while keeping the door open to negotiations, raising questions about how Iran’s overseas intelligence networks and alleged covert activities might factor into any future agreement.

A jury at Woolwich Crown Court in London found Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, guilty of engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service. Prosecutors said the pair surveilled journalists and other individuals critical of the Iranian government, according to Reuters.

EU designates Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization as Ursula von der Leyen pledges rapid implementation following a violent crackdown. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Among those monitored were reporters with Iran International, a London-based Persian-language news outlet known for its criticism of Tehran, and a prominent figure associated with UK Lawyers for Israel.

Prosecutors said the surveillance ran from August 2024 to March 2025 and included visits to locations tied to the targets, along with photographs, videos and online research.

Sepahvand was also convicted of preparatory conduct intended to commit serious violence against a person in Britain, while Manesh was acquitted of that charge and a third defendant was cleared of all counts.

British authorities described it as the first conviction of Iranian nationals under the National Security Act of 2023, warning that the verdicts underscored a persistent threat from Iranian intelligence operations. Tehran has denied any involvement.

Similar concerns have surfaced in the United States. Two days before the British verdicts, the U.S. Justice Department announced terrorism charges against three alleged Iranian-backed operatives accused of playing roles in nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and the United States.

The three men allegedly supported Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Kata’ib Hezbollah, targeting Jewish communities and plotting a strike on RAF Fairford, a British air base that hosts American military personnel, according to the Nov. 10 indictment. Prosecutors allege that one defendant, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, continued coordinating terrorist activity through coded messages while imprisoned in New York. The network was also allegedly involved in planning an attack on a Manhattan synagogue.

Mohammad Ali Al-Hassani, left, and Mohsen Mohajeri appear in an April 2026 video that prosecutors say shows them planning terrorist attacks. (Department of Justice)

In France, authorities said Monday that Iran’s IRGC had orchestrated a major cyberattack against the country’s food supply infrastructure.

According to a Nov. 9 report by France’s Cyber Crisis Coordination Centre, Iranian-linked hackers targeted refrigeration controllers at roughly 700 retail locations across France on Oct. 11 and 12.

Investigators said the attackers remotely altered defrost settings, pushing refrigeration equipment to abnormally high temperatures that spoiled significant quantities of food and triggered at least 15 reported fires.

The operation struck major supermarket chains including Carrefour, Leclerc and Intermarché, as well as other businesses in the food sector.

French investigators attributed the operation to Shahid Kaveh, an offensive cyber unit operating under the IRGC’s electronic and cyber command.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot described the attack as unmatched in its scale and aggression, and authorities said they would pursue European sanctions against those responsible.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejected what it called baseless and malicious allegations in a statement issued Tuesday, strongly condemning the “persistent practice” of directing accusations toward Tehran.

A woman walks past empty fresh-food refrigerators at an Intermarché supermarket in Névez, western France, on Oct. 12, 2026, following a cyberattack that caused supermarket refrigerators to defrost. Some 150 to 200 Intermarché stores were targeted, along with nearly 100 Coopérative U outlets. (Fred Tanneau/AFP via Getty Images)

The European cases echo warnings from the Gulf, where officials have cautioned that Iran’s regional activity reaches beyond missiles, drones and allied proxy groups.

Dr. Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, chairman of the Defense, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee of the UAE’s Federal National Council, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that Iranian-linked sleeper cells were operating both within the region and elsewhere.

“They created these sleeping cells in the region and also in other places,” Al Nuaimi said. “We were fortunate to find out about these cells, to act and to implement the law, our law, the UAE law, against them.”

Al Nuaimi previously disclosed at an Oct. 15 briefing that hundreds of suspected Iranian sleeper-cell members had been arrested in the UAE, including individuals he said helped direct Iranian missile and drone attacks against the country.

Speaking separately to Fox News Digital, Al Nuaimi argued that negotiations with Tehran should address not only its nuclear program and regional proxies but also covert networks operating in other countries.

“This is where it should be part of the negotiation with the Iranians: you have to stop not only the proxies that we know, but also using these sleeping cells in other countries,” he said.

Beyond the criminal investigations, Iranian-American journalist and foreign policy analyst Lisa Daftari described the personal toll of what she believes are Iranian intelligence operations on U.S. soil. In an earlier interview with Fox News Digital, Daftari said she had been followed in Los Angeles and New York, repeatedly hacked and approached in person. She said the FBI informed her that she was on a list of potential Iranian regime targets after hackers gained access to her accounts. “The message they want to send is very clear, that we know where you are, we can reach you,” she said.

A 2024 photo released by the Justice Department shows Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi in a conference room with weapons and a map of the United States. (Department of Justice)

In a joint declaration issued Wednesday following a meeting in Paris, G7 foreign ministers expressed grave concern about Iranian involvement in violent plots targeting people and territory in their countries.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to reporters after Tuesday’s G7 meeting, accused Tehran of being responsible for much of the instability across the Middle East.

“They are behind all the instability in the region; they are the source of instability in the region,” Rubio said, referring to Iran’s support for armed groups including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.

Rubio argued that the Trump administration’s economic pressure campaign was significantly weakening the Iranian government and reducing its ability to finance activities abroad, including terrorism and cyber operations.

He said Washington remained open to diplomacy but would not accept what he described as unrealistic Iranian demands.

The G7 declaration also pledged to keep coordinating economic and political measures designed to constrain Tehran’s ability to destabilize countries both inside and outside the Middle East.

The British convictions, French cyberattack findings and UAE allegations involve different types of activity, and no evidence has been presented establishing that they formed part of a single coordinated operation.

G7 foreign ministers and officials pose for a photograph at the start of their summit in Paris, where they are gathered to discuss support for Ukraine and stabilization efforts in the Middle East, on Nov. 9, 2026. (Christophe Petit Tesson/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Taken together, the cases map the range of threats Western and Gulf authorities attribute to Iran — from the surveillance of dissidents and suspected sleeper networks to attacks on civilian infrastructure — even as diplomatic efforts seek to prevent another round of military escalation.

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