Iran just got accused of directing a bomb plot on a British synagogue
2 hours ago · 3 October 2026Share
Prime Minister Keir Starmer visits the scene following a terror attack at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, Manchester. Number 10 · CC BY 4.0
Two Iranian men just stood in a British court.
They're accused of plotting to bomb a synagogue in Manchester.
The same synagogue where two men were killed a year ago.
Salam Ahmadyan is 36, from Liverpool. Rahman Salehi is 34, from Salford.
They appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court today.
The charge: preparing to commit, or helping someone else commit, an act of terrorism.
Both men were arrested in Manchester two weeks ago. On the eve of Yom Kippur. The holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Prosecutor Mark Luckett told the court the two men scoped out two targets.
Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue. And the Jewish Museum, close by in Cheetham Hill.
And here's the thing. That's the same synagogue where Jihad Al-Shamie killed Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, a year ago. Also on Yom Kippur.
So what connects these two men to a bomb plot? Prosecutors say a third person.
Someone assessed to be Iranian. Most likely operating from inside Iran.
That person allegedly directed the whole plot. And gave instructions for building a homemade device out of chlorine and brake fluid.
That's a British prosecutor, in a British court, saying Iran was behind a plan to bomb a British synagogue.
District Judge Nina Tempia remanded both men in custody. Their next hearing is at the Old Bailey on 23 October.
Both men arrived in Britain by small boat.
Salehi arrived in 2020. He first claimed asylum in Germany, for five years, before Britain granted him asylum in 2023. He has leave to remain until July 2028.
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Aerial photograph of Greater Manchester, England. File photo.Doc Searls from Santa Barbara, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0
Ahmadyan arrived in 2023. His asylum claim is still outstanding.
Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, says quote "a range of serious threats from the Iranian regime".
She says Iran targets Jewish communities and tries to silence critics abroad, through proxies and criminal networks, to hide its own hand in it.
So that's the Home Secretary naming Iran directly. Not just the two men in the dock.
Iran has denied similar accusations before. It has not responded to this case directly yet.
And this isn't the only Iran-linked case British police are working on right now.
A 27-year-old dual British-Iranian national was arrested in Westminster a few days ago. Over a separate security incident at RAF Fairford. On suspicion of preparing terrorist acts.
He's since been released on bail. The sixth man bailed in that investigation.
Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, has said there were strong indications Iran played a part in the RAF Fairford incident.
Several senior Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, have denied any Iranian involvement in that case.
Counterterrorism police say the Manchester synagogue plot isn't connected to RAF Fairford. But the two surfaced in the same week. And police say, together, they show the range of threats Iran is projecting into Britain right now.
Vicki Evans, the senior national coordinator for counterterrorism policing, says quote "a great deal of concern to the Jewish community".
She's pointed to the wider picture too. Antisemitic incidents in Britain are rising.
So what don't we know? Whether the man directing this from Iran is a state official or a proxy. Nobody has said.
And whether Ahmadyan and Salehi are linked to any other cells. That's not addressed anywhere either.
For now, two men are in custody. A court date is set for later this month.
And a British Home Secretary has stood up and named a foreign government as the force behind a plot to bomb a synagogue that was already attacked once.
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