British-Iranian citizen Ali Reza Akbari was arrested in 2019, but the death sentence announced this week and reports of his imminent execution may be the result of internal conflicts and score-settling between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the supreme leader, analysts say.
The UK government has appealed for a stay of execution and his safe release after Iran this week sentenced Mr Akbari to death and broadcast what media described as a forced confession from him saying that British intelligence asked him for information on a top nuclear scientist who was later assassinated.
Mr Akbari previously served as Iran's deputy defence minister and an aide to supreme leader Ali Khamenei-appointed Supreme National Security Council head Ali Shamkhani.
The move to sentence Mr Akbari this week is an attempt to diminish Mr Khamenei's influence, the head of Iran Studies at the Emirates Policy Centre (EPC), Mohamad Al Zghool, told The National.
The video released by state media site Irna, showing Mr Akbari's supposed confession, shows him in photos sitting next to Mr Shamkhani, whose face is blurred.
"This is a shot at Shamkhani as Akbari is pictured in the Irna documentary with Shamkhani, although Shamkhani is blurred out of photos," Jason Brodsky, policy director of the United Against Nuclear Iran (Uani) advocacy group said in a tweet.
Irna and other state media outlets, such as Fars, have "adopted the same [anti-Shamkhani] narrative", Mr Zghool said.
Shortly after news of Mr Akbari's death sentence and the circulation of his ties to Mr Shamkhani, an IRGC-affiliated Telegram channel said Mr Shamkhani would be leaving his post as head of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC).
SNSC affiliate Nour News released a statement denying the reports.
Iran International, Persian language news channel based in London, said it obtained documents from a "source close to the IRGC" showing that Mr Akbari's death sentence was designed to "weaken Shamkhani's position in the clerical regime".
Iran is not run by a single individual but by a coalition from the IRGC and the supreme leader's organisations, Mr Zaghool said.
"These two factions are often vying to expand their domination and authority," he said.
Mr Zghool said the reason for the IRGC response was the supreme leader's decision to remove Hossein Taeb, head of the IRGC's intelligence service, in June last year.
"Another is that Khamenei put Shamkhani in charge of talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia via Iraq," Mr Zghool added.
In 2021, AFP news agency reported that Mr Shamkhani led the Iranian delegation that met Saudi officials in Iraq to discuss a potential rapprochement.
Several Iranian media outlets have reported that Mr Akbari has already been executed, but his family insists that he is still alive.
Efforts to release him are still being made by the British government.
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Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
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Torque: 250Nm
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
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