David Willetts

In response to news that the Foreign Office has allowed dozens of Iranians into British universities to study advanced nuclear physics, David Willetts, Shadow Universities Secretary, has written to John Denham.

 The letter says:

Dear John,

I am writing to seek crucial information about the vetting system for the teaching of “proliferation-sensitive” subjects at British universities.

The Government is obliged, under the terms of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1737 (23rd December 2006) to “prevent specialised teaching or training of Iranian nationals, which would contribute to Iran’s proliferation sensitive nuclear activities”. At the GAERC meeting of EU Foreign Ministers on (22nd January 2007), the Government committed to to “take measures to prevent Iranian nationals from studying proliferation sensitive subjects”.

Following up on the answers I received to my parliamentary questions on this topic last week and on 24th April 2006, I was concerned to learn that 60 Iranian nationals have been admitted for such courses in the last year.

I appreciate that there are many Iranian nationals who have not lived in the Islamic Republic for a number of years and who are not supportive of the current regime. Moreover, we do not wish to close down our links with the people of oppressive regimes such as Iran; our universities have an important role to play in fostering cultural exchange. There is no better way of seeing the benefits of the open society than experiencing it.

However, we need the answers to the following key questions:

i) How many Iranian nationals have been admitted to British universities for proliferation-sensitive courses since 2000? Of these students, how many were resident in the EU before they applied? How many have returned to Iran?

ii) Were these Iranian nationals properly security-cleared in advance? How many applications from Iranian students seeking to study in the UK have been rejected on security grounds?

iii) How were these Iranian students funded?

The Government has made crucial international commitments. What steps were taken by your department (or its predecessor) to ensure we complied with these undertakings? When were these steps taken? How many Iranian students who had been considered eligible for proliferation-sensitive subjects prior to the passing of the resolution were subsequently stopped from studying in the UK?

We have a clear obligation to ensure that our own universities, even inadvertently, do not contribute to nuclear proliferation.

Given the legitimate public interest in these questions, I am releasing this letter to the press.

Yours,

David Willetts MP”

ENDS

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