In April 2008, a senior British intelligence official flew to Tel Aviv to ship an explosive revelation to his Israeli counterparts: Britain had a mole in Iran with high-level entry to the nation’s nuclear and protection secrets and techniques.
The spy had offered invaluable info — and would proceed to take action for years — intelligence that might show crucial in eliminating any doubt in Western capitals that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons and in persuading the world to impose sweeping sanctions in opposition to Tehran, in accordance with intelligence officers.
The identification of that spy has lengthy been secret. However on Jan. 11, the execution in Iran of a former deputy protection minister named Alireza Akbari on espionage costs delivered to mild one thing that had been hidden for 15 years: Mr. Akbari was the British mole.
Mr. Akbari had lengthy lived a double life. To the general public, he was a spiritual zealot and political hawk, a senior navy commander of the Revolutionary Guards and a deputy protection minister who later moved to London and went into the personal sector however by no means misplaced the belief of Iran’s leaders. However in 2004, in accordance with the officers, he started sharing Iran’s nuclear secrets and techniques with British intelligence.
He appeared to get away with it till 2019, when Iran found with the help of Russian intelligence officers that he had revealed the existence of a clandestine Iranian nuclear weapons program deep within the mountains close to Tehran, in accordance with two Iranian sources with hyperlinks to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Along with accusing Mr. Akbari of showing its nuclear and navy secrets and techniques, Iran has additionally mentioned he disclosed the identification and actions of over 100 officers, most importantly Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the chief nuclear scientist whom Israel assassinated in 2020.
Britain has by no means publicly acknowledged that Mr. Akbari, who grew to become a British citizen in 2012, was its spy. “It’s our longstanding coverage to not touch upon issues regarding intelligence,” mentioned William Archer, the spokesman on Iran for the British Overseas Workplace.
The New York Occasions reported in September 2019 that the supply of the intelligence on the nuclear website, known as Fordo, was a British spy. The intelligence on Fordo that Mr. Akbari offered was one of many revelations that the British intelligence official handed on to Israeli counterparts and different pleasant businesses in 2008, in accordance with three Western intelligence and nationwide safety officers.
The State Division and the Nationwide Safety Council mentioned they might not touch upon questions on Mr. Akbari.
The next account of Mr. Akbari’s actions relies on interviews with American, British, Israeli, German and Iranian present and former intelligence and nationwide safety officers and senior diplomats. Some requested anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to talk on the document.
A Speedy Rise in Iran
Mr. Akbari, who was 62 when he was executed, was an unlikely spy. He displayed a fanatical allegiance to the beliefs of the Islamic Republic and unwavering assist for its leaders, in accordance with interviews along with his brother Mehdi Akbari and individuals who knew him.
His most distinct bodily characteristic was a dent on his brow — an indication of his devotion to the Shia religion of Islam that got here from urgent his brow to the mohr, a clay stone utilized in day by day prayers. He held extremist political beliefs, expressed in fiery writings, speeches and interviews and, in accordance with a senior Iranian diplomat and an adviser to the federal government, in official conferences, he argued that Iran ought to purchase a nuclear weapon.
“My brother was deeply non secular and really revolutionary, extra so than anybody in our household,” mentioned Mehdi Akbari.
Mr. Akbari, who was born right into a conservative middle-class household within the metropolis of Shiraz, was a teen when the Iranian revolution in 1979 toppled the monarchy and conflict with Iraq adopted, his brother mentioned. Infected with revolutionary ardour, he and an older brother enlisted as troopers, and by the point he left the entrance traces virtually six years later, he was a adorned commander of the Revolutionary Guards.
Returning to civilian life, Mr. Akbari ascended the ranks, rising to deputy protection minister and holding advisory positions on the Supreme Nationwide Safety Council and different authorities our bodies. He cast shut relationships with two highly effective males: Mr. Fakhrizadeh, the nuclear scientist, and Ali Shamkhani, the pinnacle of the council, whom he served as a deputy and an adviser.
“He was extraordinarily formidable, a wonderful analyst with superior writing and talking abilities and other people trusted him,” mentioned Foad Izadi, a coverage analyst in Iran who’s near the federal government and the Revolutionary Guards. “He had entry to lots of delicate, secretive info on nuclear and navy applications.”
In 2004, amid rising suspicions in Israel and the West that Iran was secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program, Mr. Akbari was chargeable for convincing key embassies in Tehran that it was not, assembly usually with the ambassadors of Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.
A Story of Recruitment and Spying
In eight brief movies aired by state tv after his execution, Mr. Akbari, wearing fits, clear shaven and sitting in an workplace, detailed his spying actions and his recruitment by Britain at a perform on the British Embassy in Tehran. However later, in an audio message broadcast by BBC Persian — it had been obtained by way of his household, in accordance with Mr. Akbari’s brother — Mr. Akbari mentioned the confessions had been coerced.
The motivation for Mr. Akbari’s actions stay unclear. He mentioned within the video that he was pushed by “greed and energy,” although additionally denied having monetary issues. Iran says Mr. Akbari betrayed the nation and traded state secrets and techniques for cash. His household denies he was a spy and says that many assertions within the movies had been fabricated by the Iranian authorities. However, they are saying, most of the dates and occasions within the movies had been right.
Within the movies, Mr. Akbari mentioned he was recruited in 2004 and instructed he and his household could be given visas for Britain. The following yr, he traveled to Britain and met with an MI6 handler, he mentioned. Over the following few years, Mr. Akbari mentioned he created entrance firms in Austria, Spain and Britain to offer cowl for conferences along with his handlers. Iran has mentioned that MI6 paid Mr. Akbari practically 2 million kilos, presently about $2.4 million.
Mr. Akbari met with the British ambassador in Tehran as a part of his official job, and traveled to Europe typically for enterprise, Mehdi Akbari mentioned. He mentioned that his brother, like many Iranian officers, had began branching out into numerous companies whereas he was employed by the federal government, and that he was financially safe.
Mehdi Akbari described a scene during which the brothers sat in a Tehran backyard one summer time afternoon in 2006 chatting about work. When he recommended that they begin an oil and gasoline consultancy enterprise, his brother declined, confirmed him a enterprise card that mentioned he was a board member of an power firm in Austria and mentioned he “was extraordinarily tied up” with this new enterprise.
Mr. Akbari retired from his official posts in 2008, his brother mentioned, however continued to function an adviser to Mr. Shamkhani and different senior officers.
Later that yr, Mr. Akbari was arrested and held for 4 months on accusations that he was spying for Britain, in accordance with his brother and two household mates. The interrogations didn’t yield a confession, and plenty of of Mr. Akbari’s highly effective mates vouched for him, they mentioned. He was launched on bail, his brother mentioned. The case was closed and he was allowed to journey freely.
In April 2008, Britain acquired and shared with Israel and Western businesses the intelligence about Fordo, a uranium enrichment facility deep inside an underground navy advanced, that was a part of Iran’s efforts to construct a nuclear bomb. Fordo’s discovery modified the world’s understanding of Iran’s nuclear program and redrew the West’s navy and cyber plans for countering it.
“The details about Fordo shocked us,” Yoni Koren, who was the chief of employees for Israel’s protection minister on the time, mentioned in an interview in 2019. (Mr. Koren died in January.)
“The nice contribution of the British to the mixed Western efforts to assemble knowledge from contained in the Iranian nuclear undertaking was at all times in human intelligence,” he mentioned. “They’d a foot on the bottom in locations the place neither we nor the Individuals had a presence.”
The intelligence Britain shared with Israel in 2008 was quickly handed on to Western intelligence businesses, in accordance with an individual who held a senior place in German intelligence on the time. In September 2009, at a Group of seven summit in Pittsburgh, President Barack Obama, together with the leaders of Britain and France, revealed that Fordo was a nuclear enrichment plant.
Western intelligence businesses had lengthy been conscious by way of satellite tv for pc imagery that Iran was constructing a facility deep contained in the mountains at Fordo. However they’d thought the positioning was a navy storage facility and had been unaware of its transformation right into a secret nuclear enrichment website.
“The invention of Fordo radically altered the perspective of the worldwide group towards Iran,” mentioned Norman Roule, the previous nationwide intelligence supervisor for Iran on the C.I.A. He added that it helped persuade China and Russia that Iran had not been clear about its nuclear program and drove the push for extra sanctions.
Even after his transient arrest and retirement from official jobs, Overseas Ministry officers continued to hunt recommendation from Mr. Akbari, and knowledgeable him about closed-door conferences about insurance policies and nuclear negotiations, in accordance with a senior Iranian diplomat.
Mr. Akbari additionally was touring usually to London. In 2010, he had a coronary heart assault there, his brother mentioned, and stayed. He was quickly joined by his spouse and two daughters, and ultimately obtained British citizenship, residing off an funding portfolio and touring to Iran to take care of contacts with senior officers. Within the movies, Mr. Akbari mentioned he faked the center assault so as to keep in Britain.
Nonetheless, he traveled forwards and backwards from London to Tehran at the least thrice from 2010 to 2019 and stayed at a household house he had saved in Tehran, his brother mentioned.
A Remaining Return to Iran
In 2019, Mr. Akbari flew to Iran for a closing time after Mr. Shamkhani, the Supreme Nationwide Safety Council head, instructed him the nation wanted him on an pressing nuclear and protection matter, his brother mentioned.
A number of days after his return to Tehran, he was summoned to the Intelligence Ministry. Nervous, he known as Mr. Shamkhani, who instructed him that the authorities had heard he was involved with MI6 and urged him to cooperate to show his innocence, his brother mentioned. After a number of interrogations, he was arrested.
In some unspecified time in the future, Iran found that Mr. Akbari was the supply of the Fordo leak, in accordance with the two Iranians with connections to the Revolutionary Guards, info that was confirmed by Russian intelligence. It’s unclear how Russia, a detailed ally of Iran, found the knowledge.
In 2020, a yr after Mr. Akbari’s arrest, Israel assassinated Mr. Fakhrizadeh, the nuclear scientist, with a remote-controlled robotic as he was driving to his weekend house in a mountain village close to Tehran.
Mr. Akbari was detained by the Intelligence Ministry and held in solitary confinement for months in an underground detention after which in Tehran’s infamous Evin jail, his brother mentioned. The household was instructed to maintain the arrest underneath wraps. Iranian officers mentioned on state media after his execution that they’d him usually log in to a pc offered by the British and talk along with his handlers to mislead them.
In January, somewhat over three years after Mr. Akbari’s arrest, as Iran was reeling from months of anti-government protests, a crackdown by the authorities and a brand new spherical of worldwide sanctions, the Iranian authorities introduced that he was a spy.
Execution of senior officers is extraordinarily uncommon in Iran. The final time a senior technocrat was executed was in 1982. However simply days after Mr. Akbari’s arrest grew to become public, jail guards escorted him at dawn to a walled outside house, in accordance with Iranian sources and diplomats. A rope was positioned round his neck and, inside minutes, his lifeless physique was dangling from a gallows.
Mr. Akbari was buried in an enormous cemetery within the outskirts of Tehran with out his family’ data or presence. His household mentioned the authorities solely confirmed them a video of his physique being washed and ready in accordance with Islamic rituals.
“We might have by no means imagined this, and I don’t perceive the politics behind it,” mentioned Mr. Akbari’s spouse, Maryam Samadi.
Britain condemned Tehran for executing Mr. Akbari, briefly recalled its ambassador and imposed new sanctions on Iran.
Mr. Akbari’s household was allowed to carry a memorial service in Tehran 40 days after his dying. They rented a corridor in a mosque, organized white flower baskets and served trays of halvah, the standard candy served at funerals. They sat on chairs that lined the partitions, able to greet a procession of his mates, colleagues and associates from his numerous roles serving the Islamic Republic for 40 years.
However no one got here, they mentioned. Solely his household attended.
Farnaz Fassihi reported from New York, and Ronen Bergman from Tel Aviv. Mark Landler contributed reporting from London.
