Collaboration of Iranian-Origin Professor in Britain with Sharif University Despite Sanctions

The British weekly "Jewish Chronicle" reported on Thursday, July 13, that an Iranian-origin professor at Cranfield University has shared the "latest ideas and research" on Western jet engines with Sharif University of Technology, which is under British sanctions. According to the report, Dr. Soheil Jafari, a former professor at Sharif University and researcher at the "Cranfield University Centre for Propulsion and Thermal Engineering," delivered a lecture via a video call to the university's aerospace engineering society in December 2020, despite the university's ties to the Ministry of Defense and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its sanctioned status. Based on a brochure published at Sharif University regarding this lecture, Dr. Jafari was set to present "the latest ideas and research achievements of major aircraft engine manufacturers, Rolls Royce, General Electric, and Pratt & Whitney." The lecture, titled "The Future of Aircraft Engine Control: Challenges and Opportunities," aimed to familiarize participants with the real challenges of designing and building these systems and how to solve them. Dr. Jafari joined Cranfield University in 2017 and specializes in jet engine performance. Cranfield University has a strategic research partnership with the British Navy and is home to the UK Defence Academy. According to Cranfield University's employment terms, the university provides academic services to the UK Secretary of Defense and conducts classified research. The Jewish Chronicle reported that since joining Cranfield University, Dr. Jafari has continued to collaborate with Iranian scientists at Sharif University and other universities. He has been a co-author of eight papers for academic journals and has conducted research and writing with researchers inside Iran. The report on the collaboration of this Iranian-origin professor at Cranfield University with Sharif University comes at a time when James Cleverly, the UK Foreign Secretary, recently announced his country's plans to establish a new regime of sanctions against the Islamic Republic to counter the threats posed by this "regime." The UK, in line with the United States and the European Union, has imposed several sanction packages against individuals and entities of the Islamic Republic in recent months due to the repression of Iranian protesters and military cooperation with Russia.