An Iranian citizen has been jailed for 10 years on charges of spying for Britain.
Officials in Tehran claimed the suspect worked for the British Council.
Gholamhossein Esmaili, a judiciary spokesman, said: "An Iranian who was in charge of Iran desk in the British Council and was cooperating with Britain's intelligence agency... was sentenced to 10 years in prison after clear confessions."
The suspect was not identified by name or gender.
Sir Ciaran Devane, chief executive of the British Council, said: “We have seen reports that an Iranian national, claimed to be an employee of the British Council, has been sentenced.
"However we have not been able to confirm that this is our colleague. Our colleague’s safety and wellbeing remain our first concern, as it has been throughout their detention. We are in close contact with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.”
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: “We are very concerned by reports that an Iranian British Council employee has been sentenced to jail on charges of espionage.
"We have not been able to confirm any further details at this stage and are urgently seeking further information.”
A British-Iranian woman held in Tehran, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is serving a five-year prison sentence for allegedly planning the "soft toppling" of Iran's government while travelling with her young daughter.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the charity arm of Thomson Reuters, was arrested in April 2016. Her sentence has been widely criticised.
Iran does not recognise dual nationality.
