Iranian Official Executed for Espionage Leaked Information About Fordo Plant

Former deputy defense minister of Iran, Alireza Akbari. (Reuters)
Former deputy defense minister of Iran, Alireza Akbari. (Reuters)
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Iranian Official Executed for Espionage Leaked Information About Fordo Plant

Former deputy defense minister of Iran, Alireza Akbari. (Reuters)
Former deputy defense minister of Iran, Alireza Akbari. (Reuters)

Five months after Tehran’s execution of Alireza Akbari on charges of espionage for Britain, the New York Times quoted Israeli and Iranian sources as saying that the former official was an unexpected spy because of his loyalty to the regime.

Akbari, the former deputy defense minister of Iran, played an instrumental role in revealing intelligence on the Fordo nuclear site.

The plant included Iran's secret activities before Tehran admitted the existence of an underground uranium enrichment site in 2009.

Akbari, 62, who holds British citizenship, was executed at dawn on January 14, three days after his arrest case was leaked to the media.

According to the New York Times, the execution of Akbari, who has close ties to the head of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, brought to light something hidden for 15 years: Akbari was the British mole.

In April 2008, a senior British intelligence official flew to Tel Aviv to deliver an explosive revelation to his Israeli counterparts: Britain had a mole in Iran with high-level access to the country's nuclear and defense secrets.

According to the newspaper, the spy provided valuable intelligence that would prove critical in eliminating any doubt in Western capitals that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons and in persuading the world to impose sweeping sanctions against Tehran.

Akbari, who lived a double life, began leaking nuclear secrets to British intelligence in 2004.

He was a senior military commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and a deputy defense minister who later moved to London and went into the private sector but never lost the trust of Iran's leaders.

He was known as a religious zealot and political hawk and continued to serve as an adviser to Shakhmani and other officials even after he retired from his posts in 2008.

The daily reported that Akbari did not face a problem until 2019 when he was arrested in Tehran where he was on a visit at the invitation of Shamkhani.

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 IRGC.

The New York Times reported in September 2019 that the intelligence source on Fordo was a British spy.

Akbari's intelligence was one of the revelations the British intelligence official passed on to Israeli counterparts and other friendly agencies in 2008.

In April 2008, Britain received and shared intelligence about Fordo with Israel and Western agencies.

Iranian authorities did not specify the exact timing of Akbari's arrest between 2019 and 2020.

Two days after Akbari's execution, Iranian state media broadcast his televised confessions, confirming his role in relaying information about the identity and activities of over 100 officials, most significantly the chief nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was assassinated in November 2020.

In his confessions, Akbari said he was recruited by British intelligence, providing information on top officials and influential figures to foreign countries.

A few days before his execution, BBC Persian revealed an audio message from Akbari, speaking from inside the prison, saying he was tortured for more than ten months and that his confessions were coerced.

He said there is no evidence against him, noting that he left Iran legally and launched his economic activities in several European countries, but he was accused of "escaping" and owning "shell companies."

Iran said he disclosed the identity and activities of over 100 officials, namely Fakhrizadeh.

The New York Times quoted a senior Iranian diplomat and an adviser to the government as saying that Akbari argued that Iran should acquire a nuclear weapon.

On January 15, the day after Akbari's execution, the reformist Etemad newspaper published excerpts from Akbari's statements, including statements he made in August 2003 to the state-owned news agency ISNA about the need for Iran to obtain a "deterrent" nuclear weapon.

Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran agreed to halt uranium enrichment at Fordo, turning it instead into a center of nuclear energy, physic, and technology.

Last year, Iran announced a return to enriching uranium to 20 percent at the Fordo facility. Last November, it began enrichment at 60 percent.

Iran has been enriching to 60 percent at the Natanz facility since April 2021, close to the 90 percent needed for weapons-grade uranium.

Last February, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) criticized Iran for concealing fundamental modifications, like the work of centrifuges at the Fordo facility.

The IAEA did not say how the interconnection between the two cascades of IR-6 centrifuges had been changed except that "they were interconnected in a way that was substantially different from the mode of operation declared by Iran (to the IAEA)."

Later that same month, leaked reports from the Agency revealed that its inspectors had found uranium particles enriched to 83.7 percent purity, the highest level Iran has ever reached.

However, Tehran said it did not intend to enrich uranium to more than 60 percent and agreed with the IAEA to investigate the origin of 83.7 percent of uranium.



UK and France Accuse Putin of Delaying Ukraine Ceasefire Efforts

From left, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy pose for a group photo during a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Nicolas Tucat, Pool Photo via AP)
From left, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy pose for a group photo during a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Nicolas Tucat, Pool Photo via AP)
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UK and France Accuse Putin of Delaying Ukraine Ceasefire Efforts

From left, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy pose for a group photo during a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Nicolas Tucat, Pool Photo via AP)
From left, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy pose for a group photo during a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Nicolas Tucat, Pool Photo via AP)

The UK and French foreign ministers on Friday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in ceasefire talks aimed at halting Moscow's all-out invasion of Ukraine and demanded a swift response from Russia after weeks of US efforts to secure a truce.

A Russian drone attack late Thursday on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, killed five civilians and dramatized the diplomatic insistence on a ceasefire. Emergency crews carried black body bags from a burning apartment building as onlookers wept and hugged in the dark.

Some of the 32 wounded, bloodied and in shock, limped out into the street or were carried on stretchers as flames shot from the windows of their homes.

“Now, I think it is obvious who wants peace and who wants war,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said at a NATO meeting in Brussels, referring to the Kharkiv strike. “We must get Russia serious about peace. We must pressure Russia into peace.”

Russia has effectively rejected a US proposal for a full and immediate 30-day halt in the fighting.

“Our judgment is that Putin continues to obfuscate, continues to drag his feet,” UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy told reporters at NATO headquarters, standing alongside French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot in a symbolic show of unity.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Russia’s real intentions in the negotiations will become clear within weeks.

“We will know from their answers very soon whether they are serious about proceeding with real peace or whether it’s a delay tactic,” Rubio told reporters. “Now we’ve reached the stage where we need to make progress.”

A Kremlin envoy who visited Washington this week for talks with Trump administration officials said Friday that further meetings would be needed to resolve outstanding issues.

Kirill Dmitriev told Russian reporters that “the dialogue will take some time, but it’s proceeding positively and constructively.”

He criticized what he called a “well-coordinated media campaign and attempts by various politicians to spoil Russia-US relations, distort what Russia says, and cast Russia and its leaders in a negative way.”

Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, was sanctioned by the Biden administration after Moscow launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The US had to temporarily lift the restrictions to allow him to travel to Washington this week.

Civilian areas in three other Ukrainian regions were also hit in Russian attacks overnight, officials said. The Ukrainian air force said that Russia fired 78 strike and decoy drones. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its air defenses destroyed 107 Ukrainian drones.

"We see you, Vladimir Putin. We know what you are doing,” Lammy said.

Plans for ground offensive  

Russian forces are preparing to launch a new military offensive in the coming weeks to maximize pressure on Ukraine, and strengthen the Kremlin’s negotiating position in the ceasefire talks, according to Ukrainian government and Western military analysts.

The planned multipronged ground offensive along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line comes as muddy fields dry out, which will allow tanks, armored vehicles and other heavy equipment to roll into key positions across the countryside.

The United Kingdom and France are helping to lead a multinational effort known as the “coalition of the willing” to set up a force that might police any future peace agreement in Ukraine. A senior Ukrainian official said earlier this week that between 10 and 12 countries have said they are ready to join the coalition.

‘Russia has been flip-flopping’  

Barrot said that Ukraine had accepted ceasefire terms three weeks ago, and that Russia now "owes an answer to the United States.”

US President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after he promised last year to bring the war to a swift conclusion.

“Russia has been flip-flopping, continuing its strikes on energy infrastructure, continuing its war crimes,” Barrot said. “It has to be ‘yes.’ It has to be ‘no.’ It has to be a quick answer.”

He said that Russia shows no intention of halting its military campaign, noting that Putin on Monday ordered a call-up intended to draft 160,000 conscripts for a one-year tour of compulsory military service.

The two foreign ministers pledged to continue helping to build up Ukraine’s armed forces — the country’s best security guarantee since the US took any prospect of NATO membership off the table.

Moscow’s measured approach to the ceasefire negotiations hasn't surprised Western observers, because its army has momentum on the battlefield.

A US intelligence community annual threat assessment, published last month, noted that for Russia, “positive battlefield trends allow for some strategic patience.”

“Russia in the past year has seized the upper hand in … Ukraine and is on a path to accrue greater leverage to press Kyiv and its Western backers to negotiate an end to the war that grants Moscow concessions it seeks,” the report said.

Coalition army chiefs were due to meet in Kyiv on Friday. Defense ministers from the group will meet at NATO headquarters next Thursday.

Russia rebuilds its military  

Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the top US general in Europe, said at a hearing before the US Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington on Thursday that Russia is also rebuilding its military strength.

Russian forces on the front line in Ukraine now number more than 600,000 troops, he said. That is the highest number in the war and almost double the size of the initial invasion force, he said, and Russia is on track to replace all the tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and air defense systems it has lost so far.

In addition, Cavoli said, Russia is set to produce 250,000 artillery shells a month, allowing it to build a stockpile three times bigger than those of the US and Europe combined.