Exiled scientist lured home to solve crisis

Kaveh Madani was sitting in the Iranian vice-president’s office in Tehran when he got the job offer: move back to Iran and help President Hassan Rouhani deal with the country’s acute water shortages.

The 36-year-old scientist, an expert in water management at Imperial College London, accepted the role with one condition. ‘‘Just make sure I’m approved by the system. I don’t want to end up in jail,’’ he said.

It was a promise Rouhani’s government was not able to keep.

Madani’s move back to Iran was seen as a symbol of the president’s ambition to open the country up to the world and attract its brightest young people home from the West. That vision clashed with hardliners in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, who are vying to set the direction of the country. W

ithin months, Madani, pictured, had been interro- gated, arrested and ultimately forced to flee the country.

‘‘My position turned into a battle between the government and the Revolutionary Guard and that battle started on the very first day,’’ he told The Sunday Telegraph. Madani’s appointment and downfall were closely watched by Iranians. The government’s failure to protect him is likely to discourage other technocrats considering coming home to help.

But reformists lamented his exile. One wrote to the Guard, saying it ‘‘dashes young people’s hopes of being able to participate in serving their country’’.

Madani is in the US now, out of Iran but not necessarily out of danger. He said if another Iranian came to him to ask advice on going back, he would say ‘‘think carefully’’.

‘‘It’s a hard system,’’ he said. ‘‘What we saw was ideology comes before expertise. They prioritise ideology over anything else.’’