(New York Times) Farnaz Fassihi and Ronen Bergman - Britain had a mole in Iran with high-level access to the country's nuclear and defense secrets who provided valuable information for over a decade - intelligence that would prove critical in eliminating any doubt in Western capitals that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons. On Jan. 11, 2023, former deputy defense minister Alireza Akbari, 62, was executed in Iran. Akbari lived a double life. To the public, he was a religious zealot and political hawk, a senior military commander of the Revolutionary Guards. But in 2004, he began sharing Iran's nuclear secrets with British intelligence 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 called Fordo, deep in the mountains near Tehran. Iran has also said he disclosed the identity and activities of over 100 officials.
2023-05-01 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive