A top aviation scientist at a British university linked to the Ministry of Defence shared “the latest ideas and research” on Western jet engines at an Iranian college sanctioned for its role in the regime’s nuclear weapons program, the JC can reveal.

Dr Soheil Jafari, who is based the Center for Propulsion and Thermal Power Engineering at Cranfield University, gave the lecture via videolink in December 2020 at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, despite its links with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The disclosures come as the government announced that it would impose new sanctions on the regime — including broader powers targeting its efforts to proliferate arms and weapons technology — rather than heed widespread calls to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist group.

More than a dozen British universities, including Cambridge, Imperial College, Glasgow, Edinburgh, King’s College London, Northumbria and Liverpool have been identified as being involved in research into military or “dual use” technology with institutions in Iran.

Dr Jafari gave the December 2020 lecture to Sharif University’s Aerospace Scientific Association, despite EU sanction documents saying that the institution “cooperates with the Iranian Ministry of Defense and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)”.

Source: Jewish Chronicle