MILAN (AP) — Inter Milan forward Mehdi Taremi will not be able to join his teammates at the Club World Cup in the United States as he is stuck in Tehran amid the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel.
Flights from all Iranian airports have been grounded following an exchange of military strikes between Iran and Israel over the last two days.
That meant the Iran international was unable to take his scheduled flight on Saturday to join his Inter teammates in Los Angeles.
Taremi will miss Inter’s opening match against Monterrey on Wednesday and Italian media reports the 32-year-old will not feature in the other matches either regardless of whether Iranian airspace reopens.
Taremi joined Inter from Porto last year.
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Iran's Mehdi Taremi, left, attempts a shot on North Korea's goal during their Asian qualifier group A soccer match for the 2026 World Cup, Tuesday, June 10, 2025, at Azadi Stadium in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iran's Mehdi Taremi shoots the ball during the 2026 World Cup Asian qualifier group A soccer match between Iran and North Korea, at Azadi Stadium in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
LONDON (AP) — Two Jewish men were stabbed and injured in a London street on Wednesday, in what politicians and community leaders called the city's latest antisemitic attack. Police arrested a 45-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder.
Counterterror police are investigating whether the stabbings in the Golders Green neighborhood are linked to recent arson attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites in the British capital. This attack has not been declared an act of terrorism.
“Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
The security organization Shomrim said a suspect “was seen running along Golders Green Road armed with a knife and attempting to stab Jewish members of the public." It said the suspect was detained by Shomrim members before being arrested by police, who used a stun gun on him.
Surveillance camera footage showed a man beside a bus stop donning a kippah, or traditional skullcap, before a passerby with a knife lunges at him.
The Metropolitan Police said the victims, a man in his 30s and one in his 70s, were hospitalized in stable condition. The force said the suspect also tried to stab police officers, but none was injured.
Police said they are working to establish the suspect's nationality and background, and Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams said “investigators are considering all possible motives.”
Arson attacks in recent weeks targeted Jewish sites in London, including a charity's ambulances in Golders Green and a synagogue a few miles (kilometers) away.
“It happens in Israel, but happening on our own doorstep, of course it’s shocking,” said Golders Green resident Moishe Grunfeld. “I have kids, I have grandchildren.”
Britain’s Jewish community is long-established but tiny as a percentage of the population, numbering about 300,000. The northwest London suburb of Golders Green is one of its epicenters, home to kosher restaurants, Jewish schools and several dozen synagogues, as well as large Asian and Middle Eastern communities.
“There must be absolutely no place for antisemitism in society,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan said.
No one was injured in the arson incidents. Several people, ranging in age from teens to people in their 40s, have been arrested and charged.
Counterterror officers are investigating whether the arson attacks were the work of Iranian proxies. The U.K. has accused Iran of using criminal proxies to conduct attacks on European soil targeting opposition media outlets and the Jewish community. Britain’s MI5 domestic intelligence service says more than 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots were disrupted in the year ending in October.
Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said Jews face a campaign of violence and intimidation and that words of condemnation are no longer sufficient.
“This must be a moment that demands meaningful action from every institution, every community, every leader and every decent person in our country. This is a hatred that we must face down together," he said.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the world must “wake up” to a rising wave of anti-Jewish hatred.
“In one of the great capital cities of the West, it has become dangerous to openly walk the streets as a Jew,” Herzog posted on X. “This is an unacceptable situation.”
The number of antisemitic incidents reported across the U.K. has soared since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel and the subsequent Gaza war, according to the Community Security Trust. The group recorded 3,700 incidents in 2025, up from 1,662 in 2022.
In October 2025, an attacker drove his car into people gathered outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur and stabbed one person to death. Another person died during the attack after being inadvertently shot by police.
A Police officer talks with two boys at the scene where two people were stabbed Wednesday April 29, 2026 in a London neighborhood with a large Jewish community and a 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder over what authorities called an antisemitic attack. (Lucy North/PA via AP)
Members of the Jewish community at the scene where two people were stabbed Wednesday April 29, 2026 in a London neighborhood with a large Jewish community and a 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder over what authorities called an antisemitic attack. (Lucy North/PA via AP)
A police officer at the scene where two people were stabbed Wednesday April 29, 2026 in a London neighborhood with a large Jewish community and a 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder over what authorities called an antisemitic attack. (Lucy North/PA via AP)
Police at the scene where two people were stabbed Wednesday April 29, 2026 in a London neighborhood with a large Jewish community and a 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder over what authorities called an antisemitic attack. (Lucy North/PA via AP)
Police officers at the scene in Golders Green after two people were stabbed, in north-west London, Wednesday April 29, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)
Police officers at the scene in Golders Green after two people were stabbed, in north-west London, Wednesday April 29, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)
