France has finally done what European governments have been reluctant to do for far too long. On November 10, Paris formally accused the Iranian regime of conducting cyberwarfare against French citizens, attributing attacks on more than 700 supermarket sites to an offensive cyber unit affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The consequences were extraordinary. Hackers manipulated refrigeration systems, destroying food worth tens of millions of euros and causing fires. This was not ordinary cybercrime. It was state-sponsored industrial sabotage on French soil.
But the latest revelations are even more alarming. The United States Department of Justice has now unveiled an indictment alleging that Iran-backed operatives orchestrated a terrorist plot against RAF Fairford, the British airbase housing American military personnel and aircraft. According to the indictment, operatives based in Iran coordinated with associates in Britain, arranging vehicles, fuel, and materials in preparation for an attack in September. Three men have been charged in the United States in connection with an alleged wider campaign involving nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and America. These are serious allegations, which must ultimately be tested in court. But they follow British intelligence warnings that Iran is increasingly targeting military installations rather than restricting its operations to dissidents and opposition figures.
During my 15 years as a Member of the European Parliament, including five years as president of its Delegation for Relations with Iraq, I repeatedly warned about Tehran's international campaign of terrorism, intimidation, and subversion. Europe has been a battleground for decades. I experienced this personally. Following a side meeting at a United Nations human rights gathering in Geneva, where I publicly accused Iran of conducting cyberwarfare against its opponents, my own website was subjected to a devastating cyberattack and wiped out. I cannot independently establish who ordered the attack, but the timing was deeply suspicious.
The wider evidence is overwhelming. In 2017, Iranian hackers reportedly penetrated the British Parliament's computer systems. In 2018, Britain's National Cyber Security Centre identified the Iranian Mabna Institute as responsible for a prolonged cyber-espionage campaign against universities across the Western world. In July 2022, Iranian state-sponsored hackers launched a destructive assault on Albania's government computer systems, disrupting public services and stealing sensitive information. Albania subsequently severed diplomatic relations with Tehran. In January 2023, Iranian hackers targeted the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, stealing and exposing personal information relating to readers and customers. Microsoft attributed the operation to an Iranian state actor. Now France has formally attributed the supermarket sabotage to SHAHID KAVEH, an offensive cyber unit affiliated with the IRGC's Electronic Warfare and Cyber Defense Organization. This is a watershed moment. European governments can no longer pretend that Iranian cyber aggression is merely an abstract security concern.
Nor is the danger confined to cyberspace. On June 10, 2026, Britain and 23 other countries issued a joint condemnation of Iranian intelligence services, including the IRGC Intelligence Organization, the Quds Force, and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, for lethal plotting and other malign activities against dissidents, journalists, and Jewish and Israeli communities. The statement also condemned attacks claimed by the Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI) network across Europe. In July, Britain publicly accused the IRGC's Quds Force of directing proxy attacks across Europe and summoned Iran's diplomatic representative.
The threat is becoming increasingly brazen. In September, the suspected plot against RAF Fairford exposed the danger to American and British military installations. The subsequent U.S. indictment alleges that Iranian and Iran-backed operatives coordinated the operation, even communicating through intermediaries with a suspect held in an American prison. MI5's director has warned that Iran's ambitions now extend to harder targets, including military sites. This is a profoundly disturbing escalation.
Iran's record of assassination and attempted mass murder on European soil is equally appalling. In September 1992, four Iranian Kurdish opposition figures were murdered at Berlin's Mykonos restaurant. A German court established that the killings had been ordered by Iran's political leadership. In 2015 and 2017, Iranian dissidents were assassinated in the Netherlands, with Dutch intelligence identifying strong indications of Iranian involvement. Danish authorities uncovered a suspected Iranian assassination plot in 2018.
Then came the extraordinary terrorist conspiracy of June 2018. Assadollah Assadi, an accredited Iranian diplomat based in Vienna, organized a bomb attack against a major Iranian opposition gathering at Villepinte, near Paris. I was among the international supporters attending that event. Thousands of people could have been killed had European security services failed to intercept the conspirators. Assadi was convicted in Belgium in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment. On November 9, 2023, my former European Parliament colleague and close friend Alejo Vidal-Quadras was shot in the face outside his home in Madrid. He survived. Spanish prosecutors subsequently linked the attempted assassination to Iran's campaign against its opponents abroad. In October 2026, they sought lengthy prison sentences for seven defendants. Britain is hardly immune. MI5 has warned of more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots against people living in the United Kingdom since 2022. Journalists, dissidents, and political opponents have been threatened with kidnapping or murder.
What more evidence do European governments require? The same regime that terrorizes its own population, executes political prisoners, and crushes women demanding freedom has exported its violence into the heart of Europe. Its intelligence agencies have recruited criminal intermediaries. Its cyber operatives have attacked civilian infrastructure. Its proxies have targeted Jewish communities, opposition figures and, increasingly, military installations. Yet there are still politicians who believe another round of negotiations will somehow persuade Tehran to become a responsible international partner. We have heard these arguments for decades. Dialogue, engagement, concessions, and diplomatic incentives have failed to end the regime's repression or its international campaign of intimidation.
There can be no credible diplomatic settlement with Tehran's rulers while they continue to sponsor assassination plots, wage cyberwarfare, and terrorize opponents abroad. Europe must abandon its illusions, defend its citizens, and stand firmly with the Iranian people in their struggle for freedom and democracy.
Struan Stevenson was a Member of the European Parliament representing Scotland (1999–2014), president of the Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009–14), and chairman of the Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (2004–14). He is an author and international lecturer on the Middle East.