Spy-accused former soldier Daniel Khalife had a 30-minute phone conversation with an Iranian agent while posted at a US army base, a court has heard.

The three calls “rekindled” Iran’s interest in Khalife as an intelligence asset, Woolwich Crown Court was told.

Khalife, who has pleaded guilty to escaping from prison, is accused of collecting secret information and passing it to agents of the Middle Eastern country while serving in the Royal Corps of Signals.

The 23-year-old was posted to Fort Cavazos (then called Fort Hood) in Texas between February and April 2021, where he took part in a joint exercise, his trial heard.

The narratives that I told in those phone calls were false

He told his Iranian contacts he was at the base, but denied providing them any “specific details” or useful information about what he was doing there.

“The narratives that I told in those phone calls were false,” Khalife told jurors.

Khalife said the Iranian intelligence services already knew he was in the United States by tracking his location from his phone.

“They know automatically where I am anyway,” he said.

The former soldier told the court he had to “walk quite a while” before he could find any signal at the 214,000-acre site, and the “operation was over” at the time of the calls.

While in Texas, Khalife took photos on his phone of passwords, a floppy disk and a USB stick used to access sensitive military communications systems, but denied sending them on to Iranian agents.

Prosecutor Mark Heywood KC said the phone conversation with an Iranian agent, known only as “David 2”, had “rekindled their interest” in him.

Khalife denies charges contrary to the Official Secrets Act and Terrorism Act, and claims he wanted to work as a double agent.

He also denies perpetrating a bomb hoax.

The trial continues.