Indirect Accusation by Ambassador Against Dual Nationals: Unintentional Transfer of Information to Western Services

In the continuation of increasing pressures on dual nationals in Iran, the Islamic Republic's ambassador in London indirectly accused these citizens of unintentionally transferring "specific data and information" under "pressure from Western intelligence services." Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran's ambassador in London, made this accusation on Thursday evening, October 5, in two tweets. In one of these messages, without mentioning a specific country, he accused "Western intelligence services" of pressuring some dual nationals of Iran, particularly through indirect means, to transfer specific information, and that Iranian citizens "may sometimes act under the impression that such data is not confidential." The Iranian ambassador in Britain did not specify the nature of this specific information or the reason for citizens' access to such information. He also mentioned in another message that pressures from Western countries against Iranian nationals include "especially the elderly and women." Baeidinejad's tweets come about ten days after the British Foreign Office advised Iranian-British dual nationals to avoid traveling to Iran as "London has limited ability to secure their release if they are arrested." British Prime Minister Theresa May also expressed concern two days earlier during a meeting with Hassan Rouhani in New York regarding the continued detention of Nazanin Zaghari, who has been imprisoned in Iran for two and a half years, and called for her release. It is unclear how many Iranian-British citizens are currently imprisoned or under prosecution in Iran, but besides Nazanin Zaghari, Abbas Adalat, a mathematics and computer science professor at Imperial College London, and Kamal Foroughi can also be mentioned. In recent years, Islamic Republic officials have repeatedly expressed a negative view towards dual nationals and have sometimes accused some of them of espionage. Reuters reported last year that the IRGC detained at least 30 dual nationals on espionage charges between 2015 and 2017, with 19 of these individuals holding European citizenship. In recent years, several Iranian-American citizens have also been arrested and imprisoned in Iran, including Baqer and Siamak Namazi, Xiao Wang, Karan Vafadari and his wife Afrin Nissari, as well as Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen with permanent residency in the U.S. However, Hamid Baeidinejad stated that the Islamic Republic is making efforts for Iranian citizens to travel to their homeland "continuously and without any concerns."