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UK spy chief warns of terror threat from Israel-Hamas war: ‘Possibility is…’
Israel-Hamas War: The agency chief spoke at a summit in the United States attended by its intelligence chiefs.
Britain's domestic MI5 spy agency chief warned that the current conflict in Israel after Hamas attack increases UK terror risk. The chief singled out Iran as a cause for concern following terror attacks by suspected Islamist extremists in France and Belgium since renewed violence erupted in the Middle East 11 days ago.
by MI5 director general Ken McCallum said, “There clearly is the possibility that profound events in the Middle East will either generate more volume of UK threat and/or change its shape in terms of what is being targeted, in terms of how people are taking inspiration.”
The agency chief spoke at a summit in the United States attended by its intelligence chiefs and counterparts from Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
"In the current climate, we and our partners are particularly attuned to the risk that terrorist organisations may choose to strike in a new way, or perhaps that individuals choose to respond often in spontaneous or unpredictable ways," he added.
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Talking about Iran, he noted that London had "been concerned" about its behaviour within Britain "for a long time", with the current Middle East situation heightening those concerns.
"In particular, the last 18 months or so have been a particularly intensive phase of Iran-generated threat on UK soil," he said, adding that Tehran had mainly targeted its "internal enemies, dissidents, Farsi media organisations" in the UK.
"Clearly one of the things on our minds is might the Iranian targeting intent shift in response to events elsewhere," he said, continuing, "I wouldn't rule out the possibility that could include the UK."
McCallum noted the world had entered a new, more dangerous era, in which "authoritarian states" were "behaving much more aggressively".
"We are in a different world now than the world we've all lived in since the end of the Cold War," he said.
