Iranian hardliners are demanding their government take revenge on the UK and deal a blow to its spy network by revealing the real names of British intelligence agents who are believed to have worked with Alireza Akbari, the British-Iranian dual national executed on Saturday on charges of spying for the United Kingdom.
The call – made by Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of Kayan, the newspaper closest to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – shows that hardliners intend to confront Britain over the issue.
Akbari’s devastated family denies he was a spy and insists he was the victim of an internal power struggle within the regime. The former British ambassador to Tehran, Richard Dalton, suggested that Akbari’s execution, condemned by world leaders as barbaric, could be a warning to the UK not to proceed with plans to ban the IRGC.
James Cleverley, the foreign secretary, is traveling to Washington this week, where he will seek to coordinate the response to Akbari’s execution and the wider security threat posed by Iran. So far, he has recalled the UK ambassador to Tehran for consultations and sanctioned Iran’s attorney general.
Shariatmadari wrote: “Now it is our turn to retaliate and the Ministry of Information is expected to provide some information relating to the leaders, commanders and agents of the British intelligence services and Mossad services who participated in technical interrogations and to publish the resulting expertise.” “
The move, if taken quickly, he said, “would be a terrible blow to the body of Britain’s spy system and its MI6 foreign intelligence and espionage department.”
Shariatmadari added: “There are also questions about how this spy penetrated the sensitive and strategic centers of the system that should not simply be ignored.”
As Iran is gripped by gas shortages and blackouts in sub-zero temperatures, there have also been calls for deeper security and energy relations with Russia.
The US has already banned the IRGC, and some US Republicans are angered by the failure of European nations to follow suit. Claudia Tenney, a member of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, tweeted on Saturday: “Iran’s execution of British-Iranian dual citizen Alireza Akbari is yet another act of barbarism by this brutal regime. Enough empty condemnation statements 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 thresholds of evidence must be met before the IRGC can be banned 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 deadlock in nuclear talks. More than 60 French senators have formally asked the EU to close Iranian banks in Europe and ban Iran Air planes from European skies, as well as completely abandon the nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Meanwhile, 100 MEPs have called for the IRGC to be designated a terrorist organization in a call to be debated by the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday. Antagonism toward Iran has also grown over Iran’s supply of drones to Russia used in Ukraine.
A senior Iranian parliamentarian said on Sunday that the alliance with Russia will deepen with the delivery 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.
In European capitals, opinion appears more divided on the wisdom of formally ending the already stalled nuclear deal talks, with some ministers fearing a dangerous vacuum would be filled by Iranian hardliners who would then accelerate their uranium enrichment program or withdraw from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Outgoing Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi said on Sunday that economic sanctions and a military option involving more of Israel could still convince Tehran to halt its nuclear war program, as it did in 2003.
“The best strategy now would be to further strengthen economic sanctions against Iran, to build a military option not only for Israel. “Then maybe the general pressure will bring them to a situation like in 2003 when they decided to stop the military aspect of the nuclear program,” he said.
“In principle, it would be worthwhile to reach a new agreement that is better – not reasonable and not good, but better that neutralizes some of the shortcomings of the previous agreement.”
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