Investigation Reports Iranian Recruitment Effort Targeting Britons for Anti-Israel Protests

An undercover Times journalist spent more than two weeks exchanging messages with an account called "VIPEmployment" after responding to a recruitment link posted on a public Telegram channel advertised on Iranian state television. The contact, who identified himself as Mahdy and said he was based in Iran, offered payment for planning and staging a demonstration against Israel in London and asked the journalist to recruit others from his personal and professional networks.

As a first step, Mahdy instructed the journalist to post propaganda materials on prominent London streets and film the results. " When the journalist mentioned programming skills, Mahdy requested creation of an online petition concerning Iranian children. The Telegram account was deleted last week.

The Metropolitan Police are investigating whether the contact is part of an Iranian intelligence operation using online recruitment to organize protests and distribute materials. " The investigation follows a series of arson attacks on premises with Jewish connections across Europe, some of which have been claimed by a group assessed by multiple experts to be linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.