 Shutterstock CFI’s Honorary President, Lord Polak CBE and Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Conservative MP, Alicia Kearns, condemned the findings of a Jewish Chronicle report exposing at least 11 British universities found to have helped the Iranian regime develop military technology used in its drone programme.
Lord Polak CBE commented that “it’s clear that the IRGC controls Iran’s drone programmes, and that these weapons are being used by the Russians in Putin’s war on Ukraine”. “That it has a presence in British universities is yet more evidence — not that any should be needed — that we should have banned the IRGC a long time ago”, he added.
Alicia Kearns MP said: “This is a horrifying collaboration, one that I fear risks breaching sanctions in place around sensitive and dual-use technologies”. The MP raised the concerns that “it is quite possible these collaborations are assisting in the gender apartheid within Iran, and its hostile interference and violence across the Middle East or even helping to massacre civilians in Ukraine”.
The universities, including Cambridge and Imperial College London, have been involved in producing at least 16 studies to help improve Iran’s military applications. Research has incorporated boosting, altitude, speed and range of drones, “manoeuvrability and response time” for jet engines, as well as enhancing communication systems.
Researchers in the UK have been funded by Tehran, and in some instances have also worked alongside a team of Iranian counterparts co-authoring papers. The report uncovers instances where UK universities have collaborated with Iranians linked to institutions on the UK sanctions list. It was found that 200 academic papers have been co-authored by Shahid Beheshti University, sanctioned in 2011 due to carrying out scientific research “in relation to Iran’s proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities”.
Ties to other UK sanctioned universities such as Sharif University of Technology, were also exposed. The report draws attention to a paper produced in 2019 by a researcher from Imperial College as well as scientists from Shahrood University and Ferdowsi University who explored ways of upgrading UAV weaponry, including Shahed drones, which have been used by Russia in their invasion of Ukraine. The study was supported by Iran’s Ministry of Science as well as Mohammad Nouri, Deputy Minister, both sanctioned by the UK.
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