An investigation claims almost a dozen UK universities are collaborating with the Iranian regime on scientific research that has military applications, including the ‘suicide’ bomb drones being used to pound Ukrainian cities daily.
British universities have helped Iran develop advanced technology applicable to drones and fighter jets, an investigation by the UK’s Jewish Chronicle newspaper has claimed. The allegation is a particularly grave one given the present context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which appears to be considerably supported by large quantities of Iranian ‘Shahed’ drones which strike Ukrainian cities.
Essentially a flying bomb, compared to more conventional cruise missiles the drones are considerably cheaper, and can need to be shot down by anti-air missiles costing several times their own purchase price, a significant quality in a war of attrition.
While it is already illegal to export military and dual-use technology to Iran under the sanctions regime, the JC reports “at least 16 studies” allegedly narrowly side-stepped these rules, receiving funding from Iran in return for science with potential military application. Among the projects claimed are a “sophisticated new control systems for jet engines”, “special alloys for military aircraft”, and a project to “improve drone engines, boosting their altitude, speed and range” paid for by Tehran.
Some of the universities named by the Jewish Chronicle include the University of Cambridge, Imperial College, Glasgow, Liverpool, Northumbria, and Cranfield College of Aeronautics.
Speaking to the JC, UK peer Lord Polak said the findings proved the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which is said to be in charge of the drone programme, should be banned in the UK.
Former Brexit Minister David Davis said the exposé showed the present sanctions system wasn’t working, and that “it should not be possible for researchers at British universities to effectively assist the Iranian state in enhancing its weapons systems which may be deployed against our allies, or even our own soldiers.”
Alicia Kearns MP said: “This is a horrifying collaboration, one that I fear risks breaching sanctions in place around sensitive and dual-use technologies… 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.”
Several of the universities involved told the publication they obeyed the law and that they held themselves to high ethical standards.
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