The discovery of Iran’s secret nuclear facility at Fordow was not the result of satellite imagery or a sophisticated spy operation—it came from a betrayal at the highest levels of the Iranian regime.
According to British intelligence reports, the Fordow facility was exposed in 2008 thanks to Alireza Akbari, a former Iranian deputy defense minister. Akbari provided MI6 with evidence that the underground site—90 meters deep—was not a warehouse, as Iran claimed, but a uranium enrichment plant housing about 3,000 centrifuges.
Akbari was no ordinary official. A close associate of Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani, he had direct access to highly sensitive intelligence.
British sources say Akbari was recruited by MI6 in 2004 after being lured to the British Embassy in Tehran. He later agreed to collaborate in exchange for UK visas and passports, over €2 million, and property in London, Vienna, and Spain. He also used a network of front companies to travel covertly.
