Iran says it disrupted US spy ring focused on military, nuclear sites
Espionage network made up of 17 Iranian nationals, some of whom were sentenced to death
Iran claims it has demolished a spy ring of 17 Iranian nationals who worked in the country’s military and nuclear centres and were trained by US intelligence agents.
An unnamed official in charge of the intelligence ministry’s anti-espionage operations told foreign reporters in Tehran on Monday that the US had expanded its espionage operations inside Iran under President Donald Trump.
He said some of the 17 are sentenced to death while some others co-operated with Iran’s intelligence services to gather information from the US.
Iran revealed the counter-espionage operation in the midst of a crisis sparked by Tehran’s seizure of a UK-flagged tanker on Friday, a bold show of force in retaliation for Britain’s capture of an Iranian vessel earlier this month.
Iranian spies, the intelligence official said, were experts and technicians in “sensitive places” from which the US would like to collect more information. He said this included military and nuclear sites, adding that this network failed to do any major sabotage.
He added that there was no link between CIA and western and regional intelligence services for this operation. But he said some European and non-European countries were aware of the meetings in their countries.
Iran’s operation started last year and it is an ongoing judicial and anti-espionage process, the official said.