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British Police Charge 3 Iranian Men with Spying after Counterterror Probe

People carry shopping bags as they walk along Regent Street in London, Britain, 15 May 2025. EPA/TOLGA AKMEN
People carry shopping bags as they walk along Regent Street in London, Britain, 15 May 2025. EPA/TOLGA AKMEN
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British Police Charge 3 Iranian Men with Spying after Counterterror Probe

People carry shopping bags as they walk along Regent Street in London, Britain, 15 May 2025. EPA/TOLGA AKMEN
People carry shopping bags as they walk along Regent Street in London, Britain, 15 May 2025. EPA/TOLGA AKMEN

British police said on Saturday they have charged three Iranian men - under the National Security Act - with spying offenses after an investigation by counterterror detectives.

The Metropolitan Police force said Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55, were charged with “engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service” between Aug. 14, 2024 and Feb. 16, 2025.

The foreign state to which the charges relate is Iran, police added.

All three men live in London. They have been in custody since their arrests on May 3.

Sepahvand was also charged with engaging in “surveillance, reconnaissance and open-source research,” intending to commit serious violence against a person in the United Kingdom. The others are charged with engaging in surveillance and reconnaissance with the intention serious violence would be committed by others.

Police did not identify the individual allegedly targeted.

Commander Dominic Murphy of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, called the charges “extremely serious.”

A fourth man arrested in the same investigation was released without charge.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has previously said he was "disturbed" to learn that Iranian citizens had been arrested by British authorities.

The British government has placed Iran on the highest tier of its foreign influence register, requiring Tehran to register everything it does to exert political influence in the UK.

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World

Pope Leo Summons World's Cardinals for Key Assembly to Help him Govern the Church

A handout picture provided by the Vatican Media shows Pope Leo XIV presiding over the Jubilee Audience in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, 20 December 2025. EPA/VATICAN MEDIA HANDOUT
A handout picture provided by the Vatican Media shows Pope Leo XIV presiding over the Jubilee Audience in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, 20 December 2025. EPA/VATICAN MEDIA HANDOUT
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Pope Leo Summons World's Cardinals for Key Assembly to Help him Govern the Church

A handout picture provided by the Vatican Media shows Pope Leo XIV presiding over the Jubilee Audience in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, 20 December 2025. EPA/VATICAN MEDIA HANDOUT
A handout picture provided by the Vatican Media shows Pope Leo XIV presiding over the Jubilee Audience in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, 20 December 2025. EPA/VATICAN MEDIA HANDOUT

Pope Leo XIV has summoned the world’s cardinals for two days of meetings to help him govern the church, the Vatican said Saturday, in the clearest sign yet that the new year will signal the unofficial start of his pontificate.

The consistory, as such gatherings are called, will be held Jan. 7-8, immediately following the Jan. 6 conclusion of the 2025 Holy Year, a once-every-quarter century celebration of Christianity.

Leo’s first few months as pope have been dominated by fulfilling the weekly Holy Year obligations of meeting with pilgrimage groups and celebrating special Jubilee audiences and Masses. Additionally, much of his time has been spent wrapping up the outstanding matters of Pope Francis' pontificate.

As a result, the January consistory in many ways will mark the first time that Leo can look ahead to his own agenda following his May 8 election as the first American pope. It is significant that he has summoned all the world’s cardinals to Rome, The Associated Press reported.

Francis had largely eschewed the consistory tradition as a means of governance. He had instead relied on a small group of eight or nine hand-picked cardinal advisers to help him govern and make key decisions.

The Vatican said Saturday that Leo’s first consistory “will be oriented toward fostering common discernment and offering support and advice to the Holy Father in the exercise of his high and grave responsibility in the government of the universal Church.”

Other types of consistories include the formal installation of new cardinals. But no new cardinals will be made at this meeting, which is purely consultative.

World

Iran, UK Foreign Ministers in Rare Direct Contact

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi gestures during a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at Zinaida Morozova's Mansion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Ramil Sitdikov/Pool Photo via AP)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi gestures during a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at Zinaida Morozova's Mansion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Ramil Sitdikov/Pool Photo via AP)
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Iran, UK Foreign Ministers in Rare Direct Contact

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi gestures during a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at Zinaida Morozova's Mansion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Ramil Sitdikov/Pool Photo via AP)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi gestures during a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at Zinaida Morozova's Mansion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Ramil Sitdikov/Pool Photo via AP)

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has spoken by phone with his British counterpart Yvette Cooper, an Iranian foreign ministry statement said on Saturday, in a rare case of direct contact between the two countries.

The ministry said that in Friday's call the ministers "stressed the need to continue consultations at various levels to strengthen mutual understanding and pursue issues of mutual interest."

According to AFP, a UK government source said Cooper "emphasized the need for a diplomatic solution on Iran's nuclear program and raised a number of other issues."

The source in London said Cooper raised the case of Lindsay and Craig Foreman, a British couple detained in Iran for nearly a year on suspicion of espionage.

The Iranian ministry statement did not mention the case of the two Britons.

It said Araghchi criticized "the irresponsible approach of the three European countries towards the Iranian nuclear issue", referring to Britain, France and Germany.

The three countries at the end of September initiated the reinstatement of UN sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program.

The Foremans, both in their early fifties, were seized in January as they passed through Kerman, in central Iran, while on a round-the-world motorbike trip.

Iran accuses the couple of entering the country pretending to be tourists so as to gather information for foreign intelligence services, an allegation the couple's family rejects.

Before Friday's call, the last exchange between the two ministers was in October.

World

Netanyahu Plans to Brief Trump on Possible New Iran Strikes, NBC News Reports

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the plenum of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, November 10, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the plenum of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, November 10, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo
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Netanyahu Plans to Brief Trump on Possible New Iran Strikes, NBC News Reports

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the plenum of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, November 10, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the plenum of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, November 10, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo

US President Donald Trump is ​set to be briefed by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that any expansion ‌of ‌Iran's ‌ballistic ⁠missile ​program ‌poses a threat that could necessitate swift action, NBC News reported on Saturday.

Israeli ⁠officials are ‌concerned that Iran ‍is ‍reconstituting nuclear enrichment ‍sites the US bombed in June, and ​are preparing to brief Trump for options ⁠on attacking the missile program again, the NBC report added.

Reuters could not verify the report.

New satellite imagery shows recent activity at the Natanz nuclear facility that was damaged during June's 12-day war with Israel, according to the US-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS).

During the June conflict, the IAEA confirmed Israeli strikes hit Iran's Natanz underground enrichment plant.

The think tank said the satellite imagery from December 13 show panels placed on top of the remaining anti-drone structure at the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP), providing cover for the damaged facility.

It suggested the new covering allows Iran to examine or retrieve materials from the rubble while limiting external observation.

The Natanz uranium enrichment facility, located some 250 km south of the Iranian capital Tehran, is one of Iran's most important and most controversial nuclear facilities in the Middle East.