00:00So we've seen polarised communities across the UK.
00:03Clearly, I'm head of counter-terrorism policing, wider policing,
00:06address some of those social cohesion challenges
00:09and how that plays out across our communities.
00:12Clearly, my concern comes from the ability for foreign states to utilise that
00:18to drive greater wedges across our communities
00:21or even encourage people to become involved in violence
00:25where that would be wholly inappropriate.
00:28Teenagers as young as 15 are being arrested as police investigate plots
00:32by hostile states to destabilise Britain.
00:36Counter-terror police bosses told how countries like Iran, Russia and China
00:41are actively looking to intervene in our way of life
00:45as they warned how easy it was for young people to be exploited
00:49and used as proxies to carry out crimes on UK soil,
00:54lured by the promise of cash rewards and protection.
00:58Lawrence Taylor said the number of national security investigations
01:03his officers are working on has risen by 50% since the end of last year.
01:09So certainly the ability to prescribe organisations
01:12that are acting on behalf of a foreign state
01:15to encourage violence, acts of criminality that cause fear and harm in our communities,
01:20I welcome anything that supports us to do that,
01:24that helps policing, helps the intelligence agencies to combat these threats,
01:28to help us address the issues that play out in our communities.
01:32It has got to help.
01:34Everything is our intention and everything that we can use
01:38to keep our communities safe are welcome.
01:41Iran takes up the largest proportion of hostile states' casework for counter-terror police,
01:46who last year were faced with more than 20 Iranian-backed plots,
01:52including kidnaps and assassinations on UK soil.
01:56Meanwhile, officers also face a constant stream of surveillance plots
02:00and attempts to infiltrate everyday life from Russia.
02:04It comes after news that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
02:09could be bound in the UK within days after new laws from the Home Secretary
02:14to crack down on groups working on behalf of hostile states came into force.
02:20A recent number of anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish sites in London
02:24were claimed by a group called Harakat Ashab Al-Yamin Al-Islamir,
02:29which is thought to be backed by Iran.
02:31Meanwhile, a high-profile attack on an Iranian journalist,
02:35which just recently saw two Romanian nationals sent to prison,
02:39is largely understood to have been ordered by the Middle Eastern country.
02:43Alongside work to fight threats from hostile states,
02:47Mr. Taylor said officers were dealing with a staggering caseload
02:52of more than 800 live counter-terrorism investigations,
02:56which makes up the largest proportion of their work.
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