Iran is plotting with the Taliban to exploit a lost database that exposed details of MI6 spies and UK Special Forces, it was claimed last night.
Leaders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are said to have asked Afghanistan’s warlords for ‘access’ to the bombshell list at the centre of a two-year super-injunction drama in the UK.
The spectre of Iran’s extremists and the brutal Taliban regime co-ordinating efforts to hunt down British agents is causing ‘concern’ in Whitehall, it is understood.
The UK lost a vital database of Afghans and UK officials putting 100,000 people ‘at risk of death’.
When the Daily Mail discovered this data breach disaster in 2023, the Government secured a draconian court order to hush it up, triggering a 23-month battle in secret courts for open justice.
Last month the Government finally abandoned its super-injunction and the public discovered ministers had secretly agreed a £7billion scheme, including a mass evacuation programme to rescue thousands of Afghans who had worked for British forces.
But then ministers ordered lawyers to gag the Daily Mail and others with a second High Court injunction, to prevent us revealing how the lost list had included details of more than a hundred MI6 spies, Special Forces and other UK officials.
Now details have emerged of Iran’s efforts to get their hands on the highly sensitive list, ‘so they can hunt down MI6 spies’, according to reports.
Iran and its fundamentalist leaders are desperately seeking leverage with the West ahead of nuclear negotiations this autumn.
The so-called ‘kill list’ contains the names of 25,000 Afghans who were applying to a UK scheme to give sanctuary to those who had worked on the frontlines with British forces.
The Daily Mail has seen a copy of the full dataset lost by the British government, and it is understood it also includes details of more than 100 British officials including MI6, Special Forces and senior military commanders, as well as MPs.
Many of these were included to help officials verify legitimate claims.
Although codes are used, and the list does not specifically identify any spies or special forces, it could be a valuable dataset for an enemy.
A senior Iranian official in Tehran said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had ‘formally requested that the Taliban government share the leaked list’, according to the Telegraph which added it is understood ‘that MI6 intelligence assets will take priority’ in the search.
It quoted the official as saying the Iranian government has assigned a committee to the issue.
The official added: ‘There have been discussions on co-operation between Tehran and Kabul on this issue as it can help both countries for negotiations with the West.’
For two years, the British government convinced the Royal Courts of Justice to suppress the Daily Mail’s story of the data leak, in order to save lives.
The MoD argued that, if the Taliban learnt of the breach, it would try to get hold of a copy.
The MoD believed the Taliban had never obtained the data. It is unclear if the Taliban has it today.
The Taliban claimed last month it had obtained it in 2022, but experts pointed out that this is exactly what it would say, for propaganda purposes.
It was accidentally leaked in February 2022 when a British soldier emailed the complete file to Afghan contacts instead of sending a small extract.
The Daily Mail revealed last week how Afghan heroes who saved British lives are now in hiding in Iran with their families, yet face being deported back to neighbouring Afghanistan and ‘certain death’ by the vengeful Taliban.
The Revolutionary Guard’s demand comes after Britain, France and Germany threatened Tehran with a so-called snapback mechanism, which would restore UN Security Council resolutions against it, if no progress is made on negotiations over its nuclear programme by August 30.
The MOD said: ‘It’s a longstanding policy of successive governments to not comment on intelligence matters but this once again underlines how serious the original data breach was and why the previous government have serious questions to answer about how this was ever allowed to happen.’
