Trump rejects Iran’s claim it arrested 17 ‘CIA spies’
US President Donald Trump yesterday dismissed Iran’s claim it had captured 17 spies working for America’s Central Intelligence Agency.
Iran state television reported the Intelligence Ministry had uncovered a CIA spy ring.
The semi-official Fars news agency, quoting ministry officials, said some of those arrested had been sentenced to death.
Mr Trump tweeted: “The report of Iran capturing CIA spies is totally false. Zero truth.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also flatly rejected Iran’s claim it had captured 17 CIA spies.
Mr Pompeo told Fox News that “the Iranian regime has a long history of lying”.
“I would take with a significant grain of salt any Iranian assertion about actions that they’ve taken.”
Mr Pompeo declined to comment about any specific
cases, but said: “There’s a long list of Americans that we are working to get home from the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
The arrests took place in recent months and those taken into custody worked on “sensitive sites” in the country’s military and nuclear facilities, an Iranian intelligence official in Tehran told a press conference in Tehran.
He did not say how many of them were given the death sentence nor when the sentences were handed down.
In recent months, the US has blamed Tehran for several attacks on oil tankers in the Arabian Gulf and Washington also said that Revolutionary Guards shot down an American drone.
The Iranian official did not give his name but was identified as the director of the counterespionage department of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. Such a procedure is highly unusual in Iran – officials usually identify themselves at press conferences. It is also rare for intelligence officials to appear before the media.
The official claimed that none of the 17, who allegedly had “sophisticated training”, had succeeded in their missions. Their spying missions included collecting information at their workplaces, carrying out technical and intelligence activities and transferring and installing monitoring devices, he said.
Although there was no confirmation that it is the same group accused of being a CIA ring, last month Iran said it had penetrated an American espionage operation in Iran and other “allied countries”.
The state-run Irna news agency reported that the country’s intelligence agencies had “penetrated the US safe system in cyberspace” that was used “for maintaining communication with spies”.
State broadcaster Irib quoted Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the country’s Supreme National Security Council, as saying that the information was passed to allies.
“We provided the information on the exposed network to some other allied countries in which it had been operating, which resulted in the exposing and dismantling of the US intelligence officers network and arrest and conviction of some CIA agents in different countries,” Mr Shamkhani said.
Irna quoted intelligence officials saying yesterday that those arrested worked as contractors and consultants in vital private sector companies.
The official said that these included nuclear, military and cybersecurity companies.
He said the detainees had been recruited in exchange for a US visa and the promise of relocation in the West.
The official also appeared to suggest that some of those arrested had been trying to flee the country, and went to meet CIA handlers in border areas but were apprehended by Iranian intelligence operatives that were waiting for them.
Irna quoted the official, who said that, as some of those recruited had been approached at international conferences in Europe and Africa, Iranian intelligence would hold those countries responsible for any CIA recruitment that took place in their country.
Iranian intelligence officials said the arrested worked in vital private sector companies