Britain just warned Iran to stop operating on UK soil

Britain just told Iran to back off.

Ed Miliband, the UK's Foreign Secretary, sat down with Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi, a few hours ago. It happened at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where both men are attending the same session.

First time they'd ever met face to face. They'd only spoken once before, by phone, at the start of August.

So what did Ed Miliband actually say?

A UK Foreign Office readout spells it out. He made clear, in his own government's words, that Britain will not tolerate quote "intimidation, threats or hostile activity on UK soil". And he told Abbas Araqchi exactly what Britain has already done about it.

That's a British Foreign Secretary looking Iran's Foreign Minister in the eye and saying: we know what's happening here, and we're not letting it go.

And this warning didn't come from nowhere.

Last week, Britain's National Cyber Security Centre named the problem. Iranian state-linked hackers, using spyware called CHOSEN BRICK. They've been sending fake messages through WhatsApp and Telegram, trying to trick people into handing over emails and private messages.

There's a bigger picture here too. Britain and Iran have been drifting apart since America went to war with Iran back in February. Britain's stuck close to its NATO ally, the United States. But it's also tried to keep one diplomatic line open to Tehran.

This meeting was that line. Except today, Britain used it to deliver a warning, not an olive branch.

The two ministers also talked about the wider war in the Middle East. And about reopening the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway Iran has threatened to shut more than once.

But Ed Miliband didn't stop there. He raised a second issue. Craig and Lindsay Foreman.

They're a British couple from East Sussex. Iranian authorities arrested them in January last year, while they were riding a motorcycle through the country. In February this year, an Iranian court sentenced them to ten years in prison. The charge: espionage.

They're still sitting in Tehran's Evin prison right now.

Ed Miliband repeated Britain's demand. Let them go, immediately.

So this wasn't some polite diplomatic catch-up. This was Britain putting a cyberattack on its own people on one side of the table, and two British prisoners it says are innocent on the other.

And Iran's side? Silence, so far.

Abbas Araqchi hasn't said a word publicly about the warning. Iran's state-linked WANA news agency confirmed the meeting happened, and even noted it was their first time meeting in person. But it said nothing about the warning. Nothing about the Foremans either.

Iran's usual line is to deny running any hostile operations on British soil at all, and call accusations like this Western provocation.

Abbas Araqchi kept busy the same day. He also met the foreign ministers of Poland, Spain, Jordan and Egypt.

Here's what we still don't know. Exactly what "hostile activity" means beyond the CHOSEN BRICK hacking campaign. Britain hasn't said if there's fresh intelligence behind this, beyond what its own cyber agency already published. And it hasn't said what happens next if Iran doesn't stop.

We also don't know if Abbas Araqchi offered any reassurance in that room. Or fired back with a warning of his own.

Right now, all we have is one warning, delivered once, face to face, at the United Nations.

No answer yet from the other side of the table.

And two British citizens still sitting in an Iranian prison cell.