Daniel Khalife, the former soldier accused of spying for Iran, entered a “new phase” of his relationship with his handlers during a series of calls from a base in the US, a court has heard.
Khalife told his trial his contact with Iranian agents had cooled off after he came up with excuses not to travel to Iran in August 2020.
He was deployed to Fort Hood in Texas on 3 February 2021 to take part in Exercise War Fighter.
The 23-year-old received a phone call from the Iranians in the last two or three days of the exercise.
After that he was given a new contact to speak to and they contacted him on a “broadly monthly basis”, he told the jury at Woolwich Crown Court.
“Why did they express greater interest?” prosecutor Mark Heywood KC asked.
“It seems that they are interested in the United States,” Khalife replied.
“Of course, the great enemy,” the prosecutor responded.
Khalife insisted he only gave them “publicly available” information about the exercise that would not be of use to an enemy.
The prosecution alleges Khalife stopped giving his handlers fabricated documents and started supplying real information, including a list of special forces soldiers.
Khalife, from Kingston, southwest London, is accused of spending two years passing secrets to the Iranians while serving with the Royal Corps of Signals but denies the charges, saying he is a “patriot” and only handed over fabricated documents in an attempt to become a double agent.
Mr Heywood said it was a “very, very long conversation that took place on one afternoon”, and added: “You were quite prepared for your own purposes to sustain the relationship and to give them enough of what they wanted to keep it going.”
However, Khalife said: “I think it’s interesting when you say for your own purposes, because you don’t actually understand or accept what my purpose was.”
Khalife added: “I wanted to pass the relationship on. I didn’t want it to go to waste, essentially, in the interest of our national security. I thought it would be of use.
“It was supposed to expose [Iranian] officers working in the UK.”
Read more from the trial:
Khalife pleads guilty to escaping from prison
‘I’m a patriot and I love my country,’ Khalife tells court
The court heard that Khalife eventually contacted MI5 twice in November 2021, but he missed their return phone calls and instead was arrested in January 2022.
Khalife denies committing an act prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state, eliciting information about members of the armed forces and perpetrating a bomb hoax.
The trial continues.