The Islamic Republic of Iran is “almost certainly” interfering in Scottish politics in order to boost separatism and harm the British Union, according to a new report.
The Henry Jackson Society alleges that the Islamist regime in Tehran wishes to lend aid to the left-separatist Scottish National Party (SNP) in the upcoming elections for the Scottish Parliament — roughly equivalent to a state legislature in the United States — in order to “attack the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom” and undermine what it sees as a geopolitical rival.
“Iran has shown itself to be a country which engages in Russian-style disinformation campaigns, repeatedly establishing fake websites and internet accounts in an effort to disrupt the political systems of liberal democracies,” The Times quotes the report as saying.
“Judged within this context, Iran is almost certainly looking to disrupt our current elections, most likely those under way for the Scottish [Parliament],” it added.
“Tehran has put considerable effort into developing its political relationships with Scottish political elites who advocate independence,” the report suggested, alleging that “Several Scottish nationalists have embraced this approach, even visiting [the Islamic republic] in search of a future working relationship, and developing ties with representatives of the Iranian state at home.”
The SNP countered, if somewhat obliquely, that it “will always work to counter the spread of disinformation”, before shifting focus to a report on Russia and what it called the “slow nature” of the British government’s response to it a comment quoted by the Telegraph.
Breitbart London has previously reported how Facebook shut down a number of “inauthentic” pages on Facebook linked to Iran which sought to boost hard-left former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the SNP while undermining Brexit — perhaps because the EU was been such a dogged supported of the Iran nuclear deal.
Reports of Iranian interference in British politics to support left-wing political parties and the European Union have elicited far less interest than from the mainstream media than largely baseless claims that Vladimir Putin somehow engineered Brexit, however.
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