Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has reportedly asked the Taliban for a leaked document identifying British intelligence officers, special forces personnel and thousands of Afghans who applied for asylum in the UK. A senior Iranian official told The Telegraph that a special committee had been formed to obtain the list.
The official said discussions on cooperation between Tehran and Kabul over the matter could help both countries in negotiations with the West. The list was accidentally leaked by the British military, containing names, contact details and family information for Afghan applicants, along with email addresses of UK government officials.
More than 100 British officials were also named in the breach, including serving and former special forces members. Defence Secretary John Healey apologised last month, saying the “serious data incident should never have happened” and offered a sincere apology on behalf of the British government to all those whose information was compromised.
The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on intelligence matters but said the incident underlined the seriousness of the original breach and raised questions for the previous government. An MoD spokesperson added that an independent review concluded it was “highly unlikely” that merely being on the spreadsheet meant an individual was more likely to be targeted.
A Taliban official told The Telegraph that the group obtained the list in 2022 and had ordered arrests of as many individuals as possible to use as diplomatic pressure against the UK. Police decided no investigation was needed, and the official responsible for the leak is no longer in the post he occupied at the time.
