Israel received intel about Iran's nuclear weapons through British spy Alireza Akbari: Report

Alireza Akbari, the British-Iranian dual national and former Iranian deputy defence minister was executed earlier this year by Tehran over accusations of espionage. Now, a detailed report by the New York Times confirms that Akbari was indeed a British spy and had been leaking Iranian nuclear secrets since 2004, managing to hide his activities for a 15-year long period.

Citing three Western intelligence and national security officials, the report claims that it was in 2008 that a senior British intelligence officer went to Tel Aviv and informed Israeli officials about the mole they had planted with access to Iran's nuclear secrets. The officer forwardedAkbari's investigation which stated that Iran had been enriching uranium at a secret underground site at Fordow, 20 miles northeast of Qom.

At the G20 summit in Pittsburghthe following year, the then US President Barack Obama made the revelations public, sending shockwaves across the world. The report by Akbari was the reason Tehran was made a pariah state with hefty economic sanctions imposed on it - the effects of which are still being felt by the West Asian country.

According to reports,Akbari's inputs also played a prominent role in the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh who was killed in 2020 by Israeli special forces.

Russia helped Iran trackthe mole

The report claimed that Iran finally managed to get hold of Akbari after receiving assistance from Russian intelligence officials. However, the publicationdid not make it clear how Moscow managed to make the discovery.

"He [Akbari] appeared to get away with it until 2019, when Iran discovered with the assistance of Russian intelligence officials that he had revealed the existence of a clandestine Iranian nuclear weapons program deep in the mountains near Tehran, according to two Iranian sources with links to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards," read the report.

Akbari's execution

Iran’s judicial news agency, Mizanaccused Akbariof being, “one of the most important agents of the British spy service who collected important information and provided this for the British spy service in a fully informed and targeted manner.”

Prior to his execution, Akbari reportedly denied any wrongdoing. He also allegedly said that he was tortured and forced to make false confessions after he was accused of obtaining top-secret intelligence for the British intelligence agency, MI6.

“With more than 3,500 hours of torture, psychedelic drugs, and physiological and psychological pressure methods, they took away my will,” said Akbari, as per a report by Reuters, citing the BBC Persian’s audio recording.

The execution was harshly denounced bythe UK and other Western nations.French President Emmanuel Macron called the British-Iranian dual national’s execution an “odious and barbaric act."

(With inputs from agencies)

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