Britain steps up Iran spy case with Cyprus extradition bid

Britain has asked Cyprus to extradite a dual British-Azerbaijani national suspected of spying on a British air base on the Mediterranean island and passing his findings to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, London police said on Friday.

Rashad Sultanov, 44, from Islington in north London, is being held in custody by Cypriot authorities as extradition proceedings progress, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

The case marks Britain's first overseas National Security Act investigation, led by counter-terrorism police into incidents at Britain's RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus between May 11 and June 22 last year, the statement said. 

Police in Cyprus, where Britain has two military bases, said the suspect was first arrested in 2025 and had been in custody since then. An Israeli minister at the time said Cypriot authorities had thwarted an attack on Israeli citizens.

He was formally rearrested on July 17 following Britain's extradition request, a Cypriot police spokesperson said.

HOSTILE SURVEILLANCE ALLEGEDLY SHARED WITH IRGC

The suspect allegedly conducted hostile surveillance on the base and is alleged to have then shared information with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the British police added. 

"This case shows we are able to use the National Security Act overseas when British military bases are allegedly targeted by hostile state activity," Helen Flanagan, head of counter-terrorism policing in London, said in the statement.

The IRGC threatened earlier this month to attack any British military bases used by U.S. forces to launch attacks on Iran.

An Iranian-type Shahed drone caused slight damage on March 2 when it hit facilities at Akrotiri. Soon afterwards, Britain said the base would not be part of its defensive agreement with the United States over the use of UK bases.

Also in March, Iran was reported to have fired two ballistic missiles at a U.S.-UK military base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, though neither hit the target.