Iranian, Romanian charged for trying to enter UK naval base

LONDON: An Iranian man and a Romanian woman have been charged for attempting to enter a Royal Navy base where Britain’s nuclear submarines are based, police said Saturday.
The pair were arrested for trying to breach the Faslane base in Scotland on Thursday, which houses the UK’s Trident nuclear deterrent — four submarines armed with Trident ballistic missiles.
“A 34-year-old Iranian man and a 31-year-old Romanian woman have been arrested and charged in connection with the incident,” the Scottish police said in a statement.
They are due to appear in court in the Scottish town of Dumbarton on Monday, it said.
UK police, the domestic MI5 intelligence service and members of parliament have long warned about a growing threat of Iranian espionage in Britain.
There are fears in Britain that the country could be a target over its role in the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Britain has authorized American forces to use two of its bases for some US operations against Iran, which the British government insists are purely “defensive.”
It said Friday that would now also include allowing the United States to use the bases — Fairford in England and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean — to strike Iranian sites threatening the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane.
Britain has also deployed air assets to support Middle Eastern allies targeted by Iran’s retaliatory campaign.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday of “putting British lives in danger” by allowing the bases to be used “for aggression against Iran.”