Iran claims to have arrested and executed U.S. spies
Iran said Monday that it had arrested 17 Iranian citizens on charges of spying for the United States and had already sentenced some to death, Iranian and West- ern news media reported.
At a news conference in Tehran, an official who identified himself as a director of counterespionage in the Intelligence Ministry described the arrests of people he said had been trained by the CIA, but he did not name them and gave few details of their alleged spying. The official declined to give his name, The Associated Press reported, and did not say how many of those arrested had been sentenced.
Iran has previously claimed, without elabo- ration or supporting evidence, to have broken up U.S. spy rings. It made simi- lar announcements in April and again in June this year.
President Donald Trump, in a Twitter post, called the Iranian claim about the spies “totally false.”
“Zero truth. Just more lies and propaganda,” he wrote, calling Iran “a Religious Regime that is Badly Failing and has no idea what to do.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also dismissed the report. In an interview with Fox News, he said that “the Iranian regime has a long history of lying” and blamed it on the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“It is part of the nature of the ayatollah to lie to the world,” Pompeo said. “I would take with a signifi- cant grain of salt any Iranian assertions about actions that they have taken.”
The latest claim from Tehran comes at a moment of rising tensions between Iran and the West.
Tehran and Washington are in a showdown over Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear accord that Iran signed with several international powers and over his imposition of sweeping new sanctions in an attempt to force Tehran to negotiate a new agreement. In response, Iran has ramped up its nuclear program in recent months, exceeding limits imposed by the deal.
Against that backdrop, Iran on Friday seized a British-flagged oil tanker entering the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has accused the tanker of various infractions but also described the seizure as retaliation for the British impounding of an Iranian tanker on July 4 off the coast of Gibraltar.
Britain has said that it detained the Iranian tanker on suspicion that it was violating a European Union embargo on the delivery of oil to Syria. Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt has called it a tanker “tit-for-tat,” and the British government has threatened “serious consequences” and “robust” action if Iran does n ot release the British ship.
Pompeo, in his interview with Fox News, said the protection of the ship was not the job of the United States.
“The responsibility in the first instance falls to the United Kingdom to take care of their ships,” he said, adding, “The United States has a responsibility to do our part, but the world’s got to take a big role in this, too, to keep these sea lanes open.”