Two British citizens have been detained in Iran, the Foreign Office has said.
British officials are providing consular assistance to both of the individuals, a government spokesperson said.
The Foreign Office said it was in contact with Iranian authorities.
Iranian state media reported that two British nationals – a man and a woman – had been detained on security-related charges and were held in the southeastern city of Kerman.
Iran’s official news agency Irna published blurred images of the two individuals meeting with the British ambassador at the Kerman prosecutor’s office, supposedly on Wednesday evening.
The individuals were not identified in the photographs or the state media report, and it is unclear when they were detained.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are providing consular assistance to two British nationals detained in Iran and are in contact with the local authorities.”
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners in recent years, mostly on espionage and security-related charges.
Rights groups and some Western countries have accused Tehran of seeking to win concessions from other countries by detaining individuals on trumped-up security charges. Tehran denies arresting people for political reasons.
British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held captive in Iran for years on spying charges, after being arrested at Tehran airport in 2016 and taken to Kerman ahead of a sham trial – lasting less than two hours – in which she was sentenced to five years in jail.
After years of uncertainty and extensive efforts by her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, to secure her freedom, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was eventually released in March 2022 alongside fellow dual national and retired businessman Anoosheh Ashoori.
Their release was linked to a 40-year-old debt of nearly £400m relating to an order for British tanks placed by the former Shah of Iran and cancelled midway through after he was toppled in the 1979 revolution.
Confirmation of the detention of two British citizens this week comes just days after the appointment of Tehran’s new ambassador to London, Seyyed Ali Mousavi, at a time when Britain’s allies in Washington have reimposed heavy economic sanctions on Iran.
The domestic security climate in Iran is also fraught with tension, with officials outlawing calls for protests over the 14-year detention of former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard.
Earlier this week, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also pardoned two female journalists who reported the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in 2022.
Ms Amini’s death sparked nationwide protests posing a major challenge to the Islamic Republic. Rights groups said at least 529 people were killed by security forces, while Tehran has acknowledged that tens of thousands were detained.
