UK security services set trap for Iranian economists

Press TV

The controversial conference is organized by SOAS, University of London (previously the School of Oriental and African Studies), commonly known as SOAS, Mashreghnews reported.

The institution previously had held numerous seemingly scientific conferences on various topics including, human rights, feminism etc in partnership with people such as Shirin Ebadi.

SOAS is considered in political forums as a venue to attract Iranian students, seeking to transfer the center of Iran’s economic studies from inside to outside of the country by deceiving and cooperating with some domestic economic figures.

SOAS has put its focus on higher education students in an attempt to become a venue for diversion of the next generation of Iranian economists from Islamic-Iranian interests.

Identifying the economic elite students at conferences, offering them scholarships and making them dependent as people who are in fact future generations of managers and Iranian economists are among the venue’s objectives.

Many Iranian economists and students are not familiar with the network’s aims behind the scenes so they accept the invitation to the conferences.

According to the conference website, some Iranian figures have already registered for the event. The International Iranian Economic Association's conference on the Iranian economy will be held at Bilgi University, Istanbul on 24 and 25 June.

The institution is also planning to hold two other conferences in the coming weeks on controversial issues such as the feminist movement and religious disputes in Iran.

Last year, a number of teachers from Iranian universities registered for the ninth biennial conference on Iranian studies, but they refused to attend the event after media shed light on the dark sides of the event.

The conference last year was chaired by Touraj Atabaki, a pro-monarchy activist in Ashraf Pahlavi foundation, who has also a close relationship with Mohammad Tavakkoli Targhi, the editor in chief of seasonal pro-monarchy Iran Nameh and a follower of the banned Baha'i cult.

In this conference, Orly Rahimian, an academic at Israeli Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, gave a lecture about how to establish ties between Iran and the Israeli regime!

SOAS, University of London, which operates as the School of Oriental and African Studies, is mainly pursuing colonial goals. It is also a place for training British diplomats and security forces in areas including, culture, language, politics and history of the UK colonies. Moreover, the institution has secret relations with British intelligence agencies particularly MI6.

The university, which is supervised by senior British and European managers, selects the majority of its students from European and American institutions. People from Asian and African countries are less likely to enter the university and continue their studies.

A large part of the university’s funding comes from the UK government agencies. Last year, the university released statements asking students, who were fluent in Arabic, Persian, Chinese and Urdu, to prepare themselves to work for MI6.

Conditions and social network are highly available for students to get them familiar with intelligence services, according to SOAS students.

Figures including Hossein Derakhshan, Masih Alinejad, Parastoo Dokouhaki and Leyla Khodabakhshi have studied in SOAS.

The university has a media department for Oriental and African Studies, where Iranians receive the necessary trainings. The university’s media group chief Professor Annabelle Sreberny is the most active member of the institution in Iran studies. She is an Iranian-British, whose Iranian husband is currently teaching at faculties of communication sciences in Iran.

Most of the students at Sreberny’s media group are from Iran whose living and studying costs are entirely covered by the British Council, the cultural section of the UK’s Foreign Office.

Hossein Derakhshan, who is considered as the founder of porn websites and those against Iran’s security, was accepted at the university with the recommendation of Gary Sick, a member of the US National Security Council.

Most of the university’s graduates are being employed at human rights or media NGOs turning into the UK’s indirect agents in target countries.

Several Iranian scholars and UK-resident Baha'is are playing a role in introducing students, academics and journalists to the university.

Professors working at SOAS university include, Nima Mina (classical and modern Persian literature), Elaheh Rostami-Povey (development studies) who has a close relationship with Shirin Ebadi and also with Iran’s national religious members Peyman and Marzieh Mortazi Langroudi, Massoud Karshenas (economics), Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (Middle East), Laleh Khalili (media and cinema), Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Massoumeh Torfeh and Narges Farzad.