Mossad, MI6 and CIA 'smuggled Iranian defector to US'

UK, Israeli and US secret services reportedly smuggled an Iranian defector to Britain on an inflatable boat before flying him to the US, a new report has claimed.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab & agencies

10 February, 2019

The scientist was reportedly held information about Iran's nuclear activities [AFP]

An Iraninan nuclear scientist was spirited away to the US from Tehran by British secret services, Israel's Mossad and the CIA, British media reported on Sunday.

According to the British's Daily Mail, the scientist was smuggled first to the UK on an inflatable boat at the beginning of this year. Also on there boat were other Iranian migrants who travelled to the southern British town of Lydd.

In Britain, the scientist was questioned about Iran's nuclear activities and then flown to the US. The technician was reportedly involved in the assassination of Mostafa Roshan, a fellow Iranian nuclear scientist, in 2012. Israel has long been accused of being behind the plot.

According to the Mail's report, the plan to smuggle the unnamed scientist was hatched in October, when Mossad aided in transporting the 47-year-old scientist to Turkey.

"It was determined infiltrating him into a group of fellow migrants preparing to cross the Channel by boat offered one solution," a British secret service official was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying.

Between 2010 and 2012, five Iranian scientists - four of them involved in the country's nuclear programme - were murdered in bomb and gun attacks in Tehran.

Iran has long accused the US and Israel of killing its scientists, including Shahriari, a key member of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a deputy director of the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.

In 2012, Iran executed Majid Jamali Fashi, who was convicted of working for Mossad and assassinating Alimohammadi.

Three others, including nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, have since been hanged for allegedly working for Israel and the US.