Iranian hardliners are calling on their government to take revenge on the UK and deal a blow to its spy network by revealing the real names of British intelligence agents who allegedly worked with Alireza Akbari, the double British-Iranian national who was allegedly executed on Saturday. spy for uk
The call, made by Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor of Kayan, the newspaper closest to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), shows that the hardliners are determined to confront Britain over the issue.
Akbari’s devastated family denies he was a spy and insists he is the victim of an internal power struggle within the regime. The former British ambassador to Tehran, Richard Dalton, has suggested that Akbari’s execution, condemned by world leaders as barbaric, may be a warning to the UK not to go ahead with plans to outlaw the IRGC.
The Labor party backed the ban for the first time on Sunday, saying the move is justified by “the growing threat posed by the IRGC on UK soil, as well as in response to the crackdown on protests, the imprisonment of British citizens in Iran, the execution of Alireza Akbari, long-standing concerns about Iran’s threats to Israel and its support for violent groups across the region”.
James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, is traveling to Washington this week, where he will seek to coordinate a response to Akbari’s execution and the broader security threat posed by Iran. It has so far recalled the UK ambassador to Tehran for consultations and sanctioned Iran’s attorney general.
Shariatmadari wrote: “Now it is our turn to take revenge, and the Ministry of Information is expected to provide information related to the leaders, commanders and agents of the British intelligence services and the Mossad who participated in technical interrogations and publish the expert knowledge obtained”.
Such a move, if taken quickly, he said, “would be a terrible blow to the body of Britain’s spy system and its foreign intelligence and espionage department, MI6.”
Shariatmadari added: “There are also questions about how this spy infiltrated the sensitive and strategic centers of the system, which should not be simply ignored.”
With Iran hit by gas shortages and power cuts in freezing temperatures, there were also calls to deepen its security and energy ties with Russia.
The US has already outlawed the IRGC, and some US Republicans are becoming exasperated that European nations are not following suit. Claudia Tenney, a member of the US congressional foreign affairs committee, tweeted on Saturday: “Iran’s execution of British-Iranian dual national Alireza Akbari is another act of barbarism by this brutal regime . Enough empty statements of condemnation from European capitals. Now is the time for action: full sanctions, especially on the IRGC and all senior regime officials.”
The political difficulty for the Europeans is that the IRGC is already sanctioned and test thresholds must be met before the IRGC can be proscribed as a terrorist organization.
But calls for a broader strategic reassessment of the West’s approach to Iran are growing after the continued daily crackdown on protests and the impasse in nuclear talks. More than 60 French senators have officially called for the EU to close Iranian banks in Europe and ban Iran Air from European skies, as well as completely abandon the nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA ).
At the same time, 100 MEPs have asked that the IRGC be designated as a terrorist entity, in a call to be debated by the European Parliament in Strasbourg this Tuesday. Antagonism toward Iran has also grown over Iran’s supply of drones to Russia that have been used in Ukraine.
A senior Iranian parliamentarian said on Sunday that the alliance with Russia would deepen, with the supply of Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets at the start of Iran’s next year, which begins in March. Shahriar Heydari, a member of the Islamic Republic’s parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, did not specify the number of planes ordered.
Opinion appears more divided in European capitals on the wisdom of formally ending the already stalled nuclear deal talks, with some ministers worried that a dangerous vacuum would be filled by Iranian hardliners who would then accelerate their uranium enrichment or they would leave the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Outgoing Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi said on Sunday that economic sanctions and a military option that includes more than Israel could still convince Tehran to suspend its nuclear military program, as it did in 2003.
“The best strategy now would be to further intensify the economic sanctions on Iran, to build a military option not only of Israel. Then maybe the total of these pressures would lead them to a situation like in 2003, when they decided to suspend the military aspect of the nuclear program”, he said.
“Basically, it would be worthwhile to reach a new agreement that is better, not reasonable or good, but better, that neutralizes some of the flaws of the previous agreement.”