Iran says CIA spies are in custody
Britain calls for joint naval mission to ensure safe transit
Tehran’s claims that it broke up an elaborate espionage ring were dismissed as “totally false” by Trump.
ISTANBUL — President Donald Trump on Monday denied Iran’s claim that it dismantled an elaborate U.S. spy ring tasked with monitoring key military sites, dismissing the reports as a “totally false story” amid rising tensions between Tehran and the West.
Iran said that its intelligence forces identified and arrested 17 Iranians suspected of spying for the CIA and that some of them have been sentenced to death. The announcement adds to concerns about Tehran’s nuclear program and its efforts to impede shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced the formation of a joint European “maritime protection mission” to ensure safe transit in the strait, a key waterway for global oil shipments.
Iran last week seized a British-flagged oil tanker that it said had “violated maritime rules,” following the detention of an Iranian vessel off the coast of Gibraltar earlier this month.
Speaking to lawmakers in the House of Commons, Hunt said his government will ask that all Britishflagged vessels intending to navigate the Persian Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, give notice so they can be protected in the passage.
Hunt said it was not possible for every such vessel to be escorted but that ships might proceed through the strait in convoys. He also announced that Britain has raised the maritime warning to Level 3, “advising against all passage in Iranian waters and, for the moment, in the entire Strait of Hormuz.”
At a news conference in Tehran, an Iranian counterintelligence official said his forces uncovered a network of spies recruited by CIA agents to monitor vital infrastructure in Iran, including its military and nuclear sites. The official, who was not identified, gave few specifics on the nature of the alleged spying but said the suspects were trained to set up encrypted communication channels and to destroy documents if their cover was blown.
He claimed that the suspects were arrested in cities on the border, where, he said, they had traveled to meet their foreign intelligence handlers. They encountered Iranian counterintelligence officers instead, he said.
He did not give the names of the suspects, and it was unclear which members were sentenced to death and for what alleged activities. He said that the arrests were made during the Persian calendar year ending in March and that those detained were recruited on social media networks, on the sidelines of scientific conferences abroad and while applying for visas at U.S. diplomatic missions.
As evidence, state media published what it said were photos, business cards and cellphone numbers of the alleged handlers.
The photographs appeared to be taken from social media sites. Some of the individuals do hold diplomatic positions, according to public records. The cards of two of the officials said they were posted to Vienna, a diplomatic crossroads that has long been a focus of U.S. intelligence activity targeting Iran, with mixed results.
Iran’s semiofficial news agency, Fars, citing what it claimed was a senior Iranian intelligence official, appeared to try to bolster the credibility of the government’s claims by reporting accurate details of previous CIA activities in Iran.
For instance, Fars referred to an earlier compromise of the CIA’s spy networks in 2013, which current and former officials have said did occur. The Fars report also gave accurate descriptions about how Iran disrupted the covert communications systems the CIA has used to communicate with agents in the country and the plans that the agency put in place to evacuate its Iranian spies in case they were discovered.
The CIA’s “spies had been trained and in case of danger, they should have contacted CIA and reach out to specific points in border cities, then wait for the presence of CIA bridge agent to follow his/ her leads for evacuation,” Fars reported.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who formerly served as CIA director, also called the reports false.
“The Iranian regime has a long history of lying,” Pompeo said in an appearance Monday on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” program. “I would take with a significant grain of salt any Iranian assertions about actions that they’ve taken.”
A CIA spokesman declined to comment on Iran’s claims or any of the agency’s operations.