'Extremely Serious': Two Iranian Men Who Came by Small Boat Charged With a Yom Kippur Terror Plot — in Court Today

In 60 seconds: Two Iranian nationals have been charged with plotting a terrorist bomb attack against Manchester's Jewish community on Yom Kippur Eve — a year to the day after a deadly synagogue attack in the same city. They arrived in Britain by small boat; one has been granted asylum. They appear in court today.

British counter-terrorism police say they disrupted a plot to bomb Manchester's Jewish community on the eve of the holiest day in the Jewish calendar — and the men charged are two Iranian nationals who crossed into the country in small boats.

Salam Ahmadyan of Liverpool and Rahman Salehi of Salford were arrested in Manchester on September 20 and charged on Friday with engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts, London's Metropolitan Police said. The charges were announced on the first anniversary of last October's deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue.

What happened

On Friday, October 2, Britain's Crown Prosecution Service authorized terrorism charges against Ahmadyan and Salehi after a two-week counter-terrorism investigation in Greater Manchester. Police allege the pair were preparing an attack on the Jewish community in Manchester on Yom Kippur Eve — which fell this year around the same dates as last October's synagogue attack.

The alleged conduct is serious and specific: according to counter-terrorism police, the two men tried to acquire components and equipment to build an improvised explosive device and conducted reconnaissance on potential targets. Most explosively, detectives allege they were in contact with an overseas third party who may be in Iran in relation to the plot.

Latest verified facts

• The charges: Preparing to commit, or assisting another to commit, an act of terrorism, and engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts (Metropolitan Police statement, October 2).
• The alleged plot: An IED attack on the Jewish community in Manchester on Yom Kippur Eve; component acquisition plus target reconnaissance alleged.
• The Iran link: Alleged contact with "an overseas third party who may be in Iran," per counter-terrorism detectives. Iran has always denied involvement in such plots.
• How they got here: Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said both men arrived in Britain on a small boat from Europe several years ago. One has been granted asylum; the other has a live asylum claim, the interior ministry said.
• Court: Both appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Saturday, October 3.
• Public safety: Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, the senior national coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, called them "extremely serious charges and allegations" and said the investigation disrupted the plot — there is no ongoing threat to the public related to it.
• Not connected: Evans explicitly said this case and the RAF Fairford investigation — in which a dual UK-Iranian national was arrested Thursday over an alleged plot against the US-linked airbase — are "not connected in any way."

Why it matters

The timing is what makes this case detonate politically. The charges were announced a year to the day after the Heaton Park Synagogue attack — a car-ramming and stabbing on Yom Kippur 2025 that killed at least two people and was declared a terrorist incident. Britain has seen a significant rise in antisemitism since the Hamas attacks of October 2023, including a string of attacks on Jewish sites in London earlier this year.

And the small-boats detail is political dynamite. "It is no secret that this country faces a range of serious threats from the Iranian regime," Mahmood said in her statement. "They target our Jewish communities and try to silence their critics overseas, often through proxies and criminal networks to hide their involvement." The revelation that two men now charged with an Iranian-linked terror plot arrived via the Channel route — one of them granted asylum — will supercharge Britain's already white-hot immigration debate.

This is also the second alleged Iranian plot exposed in Britain within days: on Thursday, counter-terrorism police arrested a dual British-Iranian national over a suspected plot targeting RAF Fairford, the US-operated base in western England — a case in which the Prime Minister has said there are "strong indications" of Iranian involvement. Taken together, the two cases paint a picture of an escalating Iranian campaign on British soil, whether directed or merely encouraged by Tehran.

Impact on the USA and the world

For American readers, the Manchester case matters because it mirrors a pattern Washington has been warning about for years: Iran's alleged use of proxies and criminal networks to hit targets abroad while keeping Tehran's fingerprints off the operation. With the US already accusing Iran of involvement in the Flydubai FZ1073 cockpit attack and moving a third aircraft carrier toward the region, an Iranian-linked terror plot in Britain adds another thread to a rapidly thickening confrontation.

It also lands in the middle of Britain's national-security reckoning over asylum and migration. If the alleged asylum-to-terror-plot pipeline is proven in court, expect it to reshape UK immigration policy — and to be seized on by every side of America's own border-security debate.

What happens next

Ahmadyan and Salehi appear before Westminster Magistrates' Court on Saturday, where we should learn whether they will be held in custody and how the case proceeds. Watch for three things: (1) whether prosecutors reveal what the reconnaissance found — specific targets change the gravity of the case; (2) whether the alleged "overseas third party" is ever identified or charged, which would move this from an "Iran-linked" allegation toward a state-directed operation claim; and (3) how the British government handles the asylum fallout — one granted, one pending — because that story has a political life of its own.

Also watch the RAF Fairford investigation. Two Iran-linked probes running in parallel, in the same week, is the kind of pattern counter-terrorism officials call "extremely serious" — and it rarely ends with the charges we've seen so far.

Related coverage:

• "Hugely Complex": UK Arrests Dual British-Iranian National in the RAF Fairford Terror Probe — a Day After the PM Blamed Iran
• "Strong Indications" Iran Played a Part: Inside the UK's Terror Probe at the US-Run RAF Fairford Base