A FORMER Iranian diplomat facing extradition to the US over an alleged bid to secure military equipment for his country could be released.

Dr Nosratollah Tajik, who lives at Coxhoe, in County Durham, and is an honorary fellow of Durham University, is wanted by the US following a sting operation in which agents posed as arms dealers illegally selling night vision goggles.

He is awaiting the outcome of an appeal to Home Secretary Alan Johnson against the decision to extradite him on the grounds that he is too ill to travel.

There are now reports that the British Government is considering Iranian demands that he be freed in response to Tehran’s release of five British yachtsman who strayed into Iranian waters.

The five – who include Sam Usher, 26, of Scarborough, North Yorkshire – were held by the Revolutionary Guard, but the authorities concluded their appearance in Iranian waters was a genuine accident.

Dr Tajik, 55, the former Iranian ambassador to Jordan, was arrested in 2006 and is on bail pending his appeal.

An undercover operation in Britain, by US agents, led to Dr Tajik being accused of trying to supply nightvision weapons sights to Iran, which are banned under an arms embargo.

A Home Office spokesman said: “The Home Secretary is currently considering representations from Nosratollah Tajik.

“The Iranians have consistently lobbied for his release.

“We have made it clear to the Iranian authorities on several occasions that this was a legal, not a political, process, in which the UK Government has played no role.”

Reports say that the US authorities will follow proceedings closely as there is still anger over the release of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, the Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Al Megrahi, who was freed from a Scottish jail because he was said to be dying of cancer.

Critics have said the deal was linked to the normalising of relations with Colonel Gadaffi and an important Anglo-Libyan oil deal.

Dr Tajik was once accused during a US House of Representatives inquiry into state-sponsored terrorism in Iran of being a recruiter for Palestinian terrorist cells.