UK files Iran-linked espionage charges against Liverpool resident

British police have charged a 39-year-old man with offences under the UK's National Security Act for assisting Iran's intelligence service, in the latest case highlighting growing concerns over suspected Iranian-linked activities in the country, Reuters reports.

Police said Vahid Aberi, from Liverpool in northern England, was taken to a police station in central England following his arrest. Searches were also carried out at properties in Birmingham and Liverpool as part of the investigation.

The case comes amid repeated warnings from UK security officials that Iran has sought to use criminal proxies to conduct hostile activities on British soil. Authorities have also linked a number of antisemitic attacks in Britain since the outbreak of the U.S.-Iran conflict to Tehran.

Earlier this week, the UK government banned support for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), invoking new powers aimed at disrupting the use of state-sponsored proxy networks.

Police stressed that they had not identified any immediate risk to the public.

"We have not identified any direct threat to any community or individual," police said, adding that security agencies are increasingly required to intervene to disrupt suspected activity by foreign intelligence services.

Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing in London, said the volume of national security investigations has risen markedly in recent years.

"We have seen a significant and sustained increase in the tempo of our work in national security investigations in recent years," Flanagan said in a statement.

The charges follow a series of diplomatic tensions between London and Tehran. Last week, Britain summoned Iran's most senior diplomat over the stabbing of an Iranian journalist in London, an attack for which two Romanian nationals were convicted.

Iran's embassy in London has previously rejected accusations that Tehran poses a threat to the UK, describing them as "unfounded, politically motivated and hostile allegations."

Aberi is scheduled to appear before a London court on July 17.

By Vafa Guliyeva