Europe is vulnerable to the threat of terror

The crisis in the Middle East has seen clashes on the streets of Britain and elsewhere as anti-Israeli groups make their presence felt. The former British diplomat Craig Murray was arrested yesterday after pledging to support “every act of armed resistance by Hamas and Hezbollah”.

Murray, once the ambassador to Uzbekistan, was previously sentenced to an eight-month jail term for contempt of court in an unrelated case and may have broken the law again. It is an offence under the Prevention of Terrorism Act to glorify terrorism or openly support an organisation on the proscribed list. There is strong pressure from politicians for a tougher response from the police towards people who flout laws specifically brought in to stop this very activity. This is likely to be tested over the next weeks and months as Israel seeks to destroy Hamas in Gaza.

But a bigger worry is the prospect of terrorist attacks. There have been several already in Europe, with the latest taking place on Monday in Brussels, which was hosting a football match between Belgium and Sweden. The Tunisian gunman, who killed two Swedish fans, was shot dead by police. Even though he had been turned down for asylum, he had been living illegally in Belgium since 2019. In northern France last week, a teacher was fatally stabbed in an attack condemned by Emmanuel Macron as “barbaric Islamic terrorism”. All European states are vulnerable, the French president said.

This message was underlined by the head of MI5, Ken McCallum, at a meeting of intelligence chiefs in California yesterday. “There clearly is the possibility that profound events in the Middle East will either generate more volume of UK threat and/ or change shape in terms of what isris being targeted,” he said. Iran and its agents are also considered a potential sponsor of terror attacks and have been orchestrating a Europe-wide campaign of harassment, surveillance, kidnap plots and death threats targeting activists protesting against the Tehran regime. Mr McCallum said Iran already posed a “particularly intensive” threat but that it may now “move into new directions”. This makes it all the more extraordinary that the Government continues to resist adding the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to the proscribed list.

This looming threat is clear, yet our porous borders are allowing in thousands of men, some of whom may wish this country harm. It is the Government’s duty to use every means at its disposal to mitigate the danger.