Iran has become a growing menace on the streets of Britain, with its agents suspected of orchestrating a spate of attacks on UK soil. MI5 chief Ken McCallum disclosed last October that his operatives have tackled 20 ‘potentially lethal’ plots backed by Tehran since 2022 – mostly aimed at dissidents opposing the regime. Iranians Navid Bavi and Bahar Mahroo were attacked outside the Dewan Al-Kafeel community centre in Wembley, north-west London, in May last year. They were protesting a memorial service for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi when masked thugs emerged from the building and assaulted them. Bavi was left partially paralysed while Mahroo reported being sexually assaulted. They had to be protected by police in hospital. Just a few months earlier, Iranian-British journalist Pouria Zeraati had been stabbed outside his home in Wimbledon, south-west London, on March 29. He was walking to his car to head to work at Iran International’s London studio when a man approached him asking for change. He said he had none when a second appeared and together they grabbed him. The first man stabbed him in the leg but he managed to flee. Scotland Yard’s counter-terror unit were called in, given the Persian-language station is constantly threatened for its criticism of the regime in Tehran. Zeraati had previously reported on threats against employees, including family members in Iran being questioned to pressure journalists. Romanian nationals Nandito Badea, 19, and George Stana, 23, were arrested in their home country in December over the attack. Extradition proceedings are under way. Chechen-born Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev was jailed for spying on Iran International’s headquarters in Chiswick, west London, in February 2023. The Austrian citizen was convicted of attempting to collect information likely to be useful for terrorism. Dovtaev, 32, flew into Gatwick from Vienna and took a cab to the TV channel’s base, where he was spotted by security guards who alerted the police. Examination of his phone suggested he was recording the security arrangements as he walked by. His visit was said to be the most recent in a series by ‘others unknown’, who had also taken videos, beginning in the summer of 2022. Dovtaev was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.