TEHRAN, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei on Wednesday rejected recent accusations by a British security official, who alleged that Tehran was behind "several potentially lethal plots" in Britain.
Baghaei's statement came one day after MI5 Director General Ken McCallum claimed that "since 2022, we have seen plot after plot (by Iran) in Britain, at an unprecedented pace and scale."
In a statement released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Baghaei accused British security institutions of fabricating accusations against Iran as part of an "artificial policy" aimed at creating an enemy and diverting public attention from the British government's role in supporting Israel's "genocide" against Palestinians and its warmongering in the region.
He condemned the "repetition of such claims without any proof over the past two years," and urged British officials to stop making "baseless accusations and raising misleading issues" and instead use their influence to halt Israel's "aggression and crimes."
In his remarks, McCallum said, "Since January 2022, with police partners, we have responded to 20 Iran-backed plots presenting potentially lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents," adding that Iranian state actors made "extensive use of criminals as proxies." ■
