Two Iranians Charged in UK Court Over Alleged Manchester Jewish Bomb Plot
Two Iranian nationals appeared in a London court on Saturday charged with plotting a bomb attack against Manchester's Jewish community — a case prosecutors say was directed from Iran and targeted the same synagogue that was hit by a deadly terror attack one year ago. Rahman Salehi, 34, and Salam Ahmadyan, 36, were remanded in custody and will appear at the Old Bailey on October 23.
The pair were arrested on September 20, the eve of Yom Kippur, after what prosecutors described as "hostile" surveillance of potential Jewish targets in Manchester. According to Reuters, the alleged plot involved a homemade explosive device built from chlorine and brake fluid — and was coordinated, prosecutors allege, by a third person operating from inside Iran.
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| Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, where Rahman Salehi and Salam Ahmadyan appeared on Saturday and were remanded in custody. (Sky News) |
The Charges
Both men face one charge each of engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts. At Westminster Magistrates' Court, prosecutor Mark Luckett told Judge Nina Tempia that the defendants had been scouting two specific locations: the Manchester Jewish Museum and the Heaton Park synagogue, the latter the scene of the October 2025 attack in which two Jewish worshippers were killed.
Luckett said the men were in contact with a third party who is alleged to have directed and coordinated the attack planning and provided instructions for assembling the device. "It's assessed that this individual is also an Iranian national and most likely operating from within Iran," he told the court.
The pair had been arrested last month and formally charged on Friday, before appearing in court on Saturday. The court heard they were observed conducting what Luckett described as "hostile reconnaissance" within Manchester's Jewish community, visiting the target locations to scout them before any attack.
The court also heard that both men had come to Britain from Europe in small boats. Salehi arrived in 2020 and had been granted asylum, while Ahmadyan arrived in 2023 and his asylum claim was still outstanding, prosecutors said.
Neither defendant entered a plea. They were remanded in custody until their next hearing at London's Old Bailey court on October 23.
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| The Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester, where two worshippers were killed in a Yom Kippur terror attack in October 2025. (Religion Media Centre) |
A Chilling Anniversary
The timing of the alleged plot could hardly be more charged. The arrests came on Kol Nidre, the eve of Yom Kippur, and almost exactly one year after the Heaton Park attack of October 2, 2025 — also on Yom Kippur — when 35-year-old Jihad Al-Shamie crashed his car into the synagogue's gates and launched a knife attack while wearing a fake suicide belt.
Congregants Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, were killed in that attack, and three other men were seriously wounded. Al-Shamie, who reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, was shot dead by police. The Jewish community has described the anniversary period as one of intense anxiety, and the Community Security Trust — which monitors antisemitic incidents in Britain — recorded its highest-ever daily totals in the days after last year's attack. The Trust logged 3,700 antisemitic incidents across the UK in 2025, the second-highest annual total since it began keeping records.
Police: No Ongoing Threat
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, the senior national coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, said the alleged plot was the result of a long-running proactive investigation and that police believed it was isolated. There is no ongoing threat to the public, she said.
Evans also stated that the case was unconnected to a separate suspected terror plot at the U.S.-run RAF Fairford air base, which some officials have suggested may have links to Tehran. Five British men were arrested near that base in late September, and Prime Minister Andy Burnham told Parliament there was a "strong indication" of Iranian involvement — a claim Iran's embassy in London has denied.
What This Means
The case lands at a moment of acute tension between Britain and Iran. It comes days after the Fairford allegations, and amid a wider escalation involving Tehran across the region — from the U.S. military buildup in the Middle East to drone and missile strikes attributed to Iranian-aligned groups.
If the prosecution's claims about direction from Iran are proven, the case would represent a serious escalation: a state-linked bomb plot against a minority community on British soil, timed to the anniversary of a previous atrocity. Counter-terrorism officials have repeatedly warned that Iran has stepped up hostile activity against perceived enemies in the West, and the new National Centre for Information Defence ordered by Burnham last month was framed around precisely this kind of threat.
The small-boat immigration angle will almost certainly become politically explosive. One defendant was granted asylum after arriving in 2020; the other's claim was pending. Expect fierce debate over vetting, the asylum backlog, and Channel crossings in the coming days.
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| UK counter-terrorism police said the Manchester plot was isolated and there was no ongoing threat to the public. (NPR/AP) |
What Happens Next
Separately, an inquest into the deaths of Cravitz and Daulby in last year's attack is expected to examine what the state knew about Jihad Al-Shamie before he acted. Ministers have sought to keep some MI5 material out of the proceedings, citing national security — a fight that is likely to intensify as the new case moves toward trial.
For Manchester's Jewish community, the message from police was both reassuring and sobering: the plot was foiled, the threat is contained — but the vigilance, a year after the worst antisemitic attack in modern British history, is not going away.
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