GCHQ has teamed up with fellow spy agencies to recruit Farsi speakers to help combat the growing threat by Iran, reports The Times.

The Cheltenham-based intelligence agency has launched the recruitment drive with MI5 and MI6 in the wake of at least 15 foiled plots on UK soil emanating from Tehran.

The spooks are hoping that British Farsi speakers will step up to the plate to fill the specialist roles.

Farsi is the Persian word for the Persian language which is spoken within Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan.

Recruits could be involved in live operational work such as listening, intercepting and translating conversations to help handlers target new assets.

The Time article states the starting salary is £40,000 but a job advert on the GCHQ website for Persian Language Specialists says the salary range is £ £32,092-£39,951.

The agencies are looking for people who have grown up in a multi-lingual family or studied Persian to a high level and have a "good knowledge of Iranian culture, history, religion and politics"

The advert adds: "Whether you're based at MI5, MI6 or GCHQ, you'll play a key role in helping operational teams gather and understand intelligence from foreign language materials."

It said of those chosen to work in Cheltenham: "At GCHQ, you'll combine your language, technical and analytical skills to piece together snippets of information collected from a variety of digital communication sources.

"You'll work closely with your operational teams as well as other governmental departments, identifying reportable intelligence, that will progress operations, as well as shape and influence government policy."

The closing sate for the job advert is April 29.