Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has rejected claims by Prime Minister Andy Burnham that Tehran is linked to the recent security scare near the RAF Fairford airbase in south-western England. Araghchi responded to Burnham’s claims saying: “I can confirm Iran’s belief that releasing supposed terrorists working for foreign states really says it all. You’re barking up the wrong tree.” And the Iranian Embassy in London has also strongly denied any involvement in the incident near the RAF base and accused the UK government of peddling “Iranophobia”.

On Sunday police arrested five men near the airbase that hosts US bombers used in missions against Iran. The suspects turned out to be British citizens in their early 20s and were released on bail the following day. “There are strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened over the weekend at RAF Fairford,” Burnham later told the BBC, publicly linking the incident to foreign intelligence services. He declined to provide further details, promising to “say more in due course”. Burnham also defended the decision to release the suspects, which had been questioned by US President Donald Trump, insisting that the men were subject to the “strictest possible bail conditions”. Meanwhile counterterrorism chief Laurence Taylor stressed that releasing the men did not mean the case was over. The suspects remain under “stringent” restrictions while investigators pursue “multiple new lines of enquiry”, he insisted.

Trump says the suspects were known to law enforcement. “I would have said, ‘don’t let them have bail’. I’m surprised that they released them. I wouldn’t have done that,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.

The case has fuelled much speculation in the Western media, including theories that Russia or unspecified Islamist extremists may have been behind the incident. The police initially believed the suspects illegally held explosives, but none were found in three vans found in the vicinity of the base.

In another twist the BBC reported on Wednesday that one of the five suspects had called the police himself shortly before the arrests – and about an hour before local residents alerted authorities to suspicious vehicles near the base. And according to the Daily Mail, the masked men reported by locals in the woods were apparently armed police responding to the initial tip.