24th
May 2007
Iran is
attempting to draw up plans to strike targets in Europe
and has reconnoitered European nuclear power stations, a
security analyst told a meeting at Britain's parliament.
Claude
Moniquet, president of the European Strategic
Intelligence and Security Centre, a private think-tank
in Brussels, said his organisation also had evidence
Tehran has increased the number of its intelligence
agents across Europe.
"We have
serious signals that something is under preparation in
Europe," Moniquet said. "Iranian intelligence is working
extremely hard to prepare its people and to prepare
actions."
The centre,
which he said deals directly with European intelligence
agencies, believes Iranian operatives have carried out
"reconnaissance of targets in European cities, including
nuclear power stations," Moniquet said. He mentioned no
other specific targets.
Preparations to target Europe's nuclear energy plants
could be tied to the diplomatic standoff over Tehran's
contested nuclear program, he told a meeting of MPs and
analysts in London's House of Commons.
Iran
appeared to be preparing to target "British citizens on
the streets of London," Moniquet said. "Just as they
kill British soldiers in the south of Iraq."
Conservative parliamentarian Patrick Mercer told the
meeting that Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, in a
debate in December, had acknowledged worries about
Tehran backing terrorist activity inside Britain.
There were
"concerns about the scale and nature of terrorism in
this country, and about whether some of that is inspired
or funded in any way by forces in and around Iran,"
Beckett told MPs.
Parliament's intelligence and security committee, a
panel of MPs which reviews the work of Britain's MI5 and
MI6 domestic and foreign spy agencies, also warned last
year of an "increased threat to UK interests from
Iranian state-sponsored terrorism".
A
government security official said Iran was active in
espionage and likely interested in compiling information
on European military and industrial targets.
However,
the official could not verify Moniquet's claim that
Tehran had conducted reconnaissance against power plants
or increased numbers of agents in Britain.
"There was
a lot of anticipation the number of agents would
increase when President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad came to
power," the official said. "But I'm not sure whether
that has actually been the case."
Mercer
called for tougher sanctions against Tehran from the UN
security council, to force Iran to halt its nuclear
program and to dissuade the regime from backing militia
groups attacking British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Opposition
Conservative party leader David Cameron also urged
Britain and the United States, in an earlier speech, to
strengthen measures against Iran and called on
Washington to speed up plans for talks with Iranian
officials.
The
Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency is due
to submit a report on Tehran's program to the UN
security council and is expected to reveal further
Iranian advances in uranium enrichment.
In March,
Tehran was given a 60 day deadline - which expires this
week - to halt enrichment or face further punitive
measures.
Iran
insists it is engaged in a civilian power program. The
United States and its allies claim it is a cover for the
covert development of nuclear weapons.
Current
sanctions are "too weak to bring about a change in
behaviour" and incentives to halt the program - such as
the prospect of better relations with the West - have
been damaged by a lack of commitment by the United
States, Cameron said.
Talks are
scheduled in Baghdad between US Ambassador Ryan Crocker
and his Iranian counterpart on May 28, and will be among
only a handful of direct US-Iranian talks since the 1979
hostage crisis.
