Daily Mail

How UK handed over £16m of aid to Iran

- By Daniel Martin Policy Editor

BRITAIN spent more than £1.5million of its aid budget on Iran in 2017, figures have revealed.

The money came from the Foreign Office while Boris Johnson was in charge of the department, and was spent on ‘improving educationa­l links’ between the two countries. An annual report said that on top of this funding, millions of pounds of aid are funnelled to Iran through internatio­nal agencies funded by Britain, such as the UN and the EU.

Most of this funded shelter and humanitari­an relief to some of the most vulnerable people in the world. A key priority for the UN in Iran is to provide support to Afghans who are unable to return to Afghanista­n. Between 2013 and 2017, £16million of the aid budget went to Iran. The Foreign Office said that none of their money went to the Iranian government.

Details of the aid spending were contained in the annual report of the Department for Internatio­nal Developmen­t, which hands out most of Britain’s huge aid budget.

IN a deliberate and provocativ­e act of belligeren­ce, Iran is once again torturing innocent British citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Imprisoned on trumped- up spying charges, the mother has been bundled onto a psychiatri­c ward, where it is feared she will be forced to sign a false confession.

It’s the latest warped incitement by the peace-threatenin­g mullahs in Tehran.

Last week, a Royal Navy warship was embroiled in a tense armed confrontat­ion with Iranian Revolution­ary Guards harassing a British tanker in the Gulf.

Meanwhile, the brutal Islamist theocracy remains an anti- democratic sponsor of global terror, oppressor of women and persecutor of gays and lesbians.

Given the rising tensions, isn’t it shocking to learn Britain has sent £16million to Iran from our bloated overseas aid budget?

What are our woolly-headed mandarins thinking? Yes, it’s shrewd to try to bring the pariah state in from the cold. That would surely make the world a safer place.

But should we really be funnelling such astronomic­al sums towards a tyrannical regime that loathes us? Especially when the cash could be put to excellent use improving our sub-standard social care.

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