A former Iranian nuclear negotiator has been charged with giving classified information to the British embassy, it emerged today.

Hossein Mousavian will now be tried after he was detained and bailed earlier in the year over the allegations.

It is feared that the close friend to former premier Hashemi Rafsanjani - a leading rival to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - has been framed.

“His crime from the viewpoint of the Intelligence Ministry is obvious and provable,” intelligence minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi said today.

“He has been informed of the charges that he has given the British Embassy information contrary to the security of the country.”

Mousavian - who was the top nuclear negotiator under former reformist President Mohammad Khatami - was briefly detained in May.

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