LONDON: A prominent Iranian journalist was stabbed as he left his London home on Friday, police confirmed.
Pouria Zeraati, host of the “Last Word” program on the Iran International TV network, suffered knife wounds to multiple parts of his body. He was taken to hospital where his condition remains stable.
London’s Metropolitan Police said it was conducting an investigation into the incident.
A spokesman for the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command said it was leading the inquiry and it is understood that MI5 has been informed.
“While we are keeping an open mind, given the occupation of the victim and our publicized concerns about the threat to employees of that organization, the investigation is being led by the Counter Terrorism Command,” unit chief Dominic Murphy said in a statement seen by Arab News.
“I must stress that, at this early stage of our investigation, we do not know the reason this victim was attacked and there could be a number of explanations for this.
“While we continue to assess the circumstances of this incident, detectives are following a number of lines of inquiry and our priority at this time is to try to identify whoever was behind this attack and to arrest them.
“I appreciate the wider concern this incident may cause, particularly among others in similar lines of work, and those from Iranian communities.
“We continue to work closely with the victim’s organization and as a precaution we’ll have additional patrols in the Wimbledon area as well as other sites around London to provide reassurance over the coming days to those affected and concerned.
“Finally, I would urge anyone in the Wimbledon area who may have seen anything or anyone acting suspiciously today to get in touch with us,” Murphy added.
The Tehran regime previously plotted to kill two Iran International TV anchors, Sima Sabet and Fardad Farahzad, in November 2022, it was revealed, forcing the Metropolitan Police to provide round-the-clock protection at the channel’s former offices in west London.
The channel reported on the attack on Zeraati, saying: “The Iranian regime in the recent past had tried to harm Iran International and its journalists for their coverage of Iran, and the platform it provides to critics and human rights activists.”
Gabriel Noronha, former adviser to the US State Department on Iran, posted to X that it was “only a matter of time” before Iranian assassins successfully reached one of the regime’s targets in the US or UK.
He wished Zeraati a “speedy recovery” and said he hoped “the UK government starts getting serious about the regime’s threats,” urging it to sanction the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
