Kaballo’s career in political media began in the office of George Galloway, the former British MP and longtime presenter for Press TV.
Between 2013 and 2016, Kaballo worked as Galloway’s parliamentary assistant and research manager for his Respect party. He also produced television programmes involving Galloway and former London mayor Ken Livingstone, another Press TV presenter.
In 2016, Kaballo joined Press TV’s London operation, four years after Britain’s broadcasting regulator Ofcom had revoked the channel’s licence over editorial control exercised from Tehran.
The loss of its licence did not end Press TV’s activities in Britain. The broadcaster maintained staff, production operations and financial arrangements through British companies.
Internal correspondence obtained by Iran International reveals how those arrangements worked.
On June 29, 2020, Alireza Norouzi, a financial manager at Press TV’s Tehran headquarters, wrote to Mehdi Mirtaleb, head of its London office, questioning nine months of reporting fees paid to Kaballo.
The payments, totalling £41,719.06, had been made by Aparat Ltd, a London production company associated with Mirtaleb, for work between February 2019 and January 2020.
A June 2020 letter from Press TV’s finance office in Tehran to its London chief, querying £41,719 in fees paid to Ahmed Kaballo through Aparat Ltd.Norouzi said the payments had not received the necessary approval from the state broadcaster’s World Service and asked London to obtain authorisation so Press TV could reimburse Aparat.
Aparat, incorporated in 2009, is directed by Mariola Mirtaleb, who shared an address with Mehdi Mirtaleb that year. He identifies himself as its co-founder. Kaballo used an Aparat email address in Press TV correspondence.
The records establish that a British company paid Kaballo for work subject to financial oversight by the Iranian state broadcaster’s headquarters.
In February 2019, Mirtaleb wrote to Peyman Jebelli, then head of the broadcaster’s World Service, explaining that sanctions-related banking restrictions had made transferring money to London increasingly difficult.
Eight bank accounts had been closed, he said, while exchange houses in Britain, Germany and Spain refused to handle transactions because of the operation’s links to Iran.
A February 2019 letter from Press TV’s London chief to the head of IRIB’s World Service, describing cash received through the Iranian embassy and a landlord’s company used to move money after eight bank accounts were closed.Mirtaleb described an alternative arrangement involving the owner of the London premises, who received Press TV funds abroad and transferred equivalent sums into the operation’s British account through his own company.
Mirtaleb also reported receiving cash in pounds through the Iranian embassy, describing the arrangements as the only secure means then available.
In another letter, written two years later, he thanked Jebelli for the regular transfer of a £120,000 monthly budget and requested additional funding for expenses including equipment purchased in Russia, technical work and outstanding production costs.
A March 2021 letter from Press TV’s London chief thanking Tehran for the regular arrival of the office’s monthly budget and asking for more, including for equipment bought in Russia.The correspondence provides a rare account of how Iran’s foreign broadcasting operation maintained its presence in London despite the loss of its broadcasting licence and restrictions on financial transfers.
Jebelli, now head of Iran’s state broadcaster, was sanctioned by the United States in 2022. Ahmad Noroozi, who subsequently led the World Service, has also been sanctioned by Western governments.
Neither Mirtaleb nor Press TV is under British sanctions. Mirtaleb has previously dismissed allegations surrounding his companies as conspiracy-driven.
