By Aaron Miller-
Iran has dramatically announced the arrest of 17 Iranians it accused of spying on the country’s nuclear and military sites for the CIA , adding that some of them have been sentenced to death. President Donald Trump said there was “zero truth” to the claims.
The alleged arrests are said to have occured over the past months, an Iranian intelligence official said at a news conference in Tehran. The official said those taken into custody worked on “sensitive sites” in military and nuclear installations. U.S president, Donald Trump has rubbished the claims as ”totally false”
The announcement comes amid increasing tensions between Washington and Tehran over Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of Iran’s nuclear agreement and impose broad sanctions on the country. The alleged 17 spies are said to have been recruited by the CIA and had “sophisticated training” but failed in their sabotage missions, the official said. The spies are said to have amassed information at the facilities where they worked and installed monitoring devices, he said.
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Some of the spies are said to have been staff members at the targeted facilities, the rest were working as consultant and contractors.On Sunday, Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi (pictured) announced a documentary on the arrests of “US-linked spies” would be aired on Iranian Television.
Another official said the CIA had promised them U.S. visas or jobs in America.Some of the spies reportedly fell into a “visa trap” set up by the CIA for Iranians wanting to travel to the US, Mr Alavi said, adding: “Some were approached when they were applying for a visa, while others had visas from before and were pressured by the CIA in order to renew them.”
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Others had been enticed by offers of money, lucrative jobs and medical services, he said.
“The Report of Iran capturing CIA spies is totally false. Zero truth. Just more lies and propaganda,” Trump tweeted, noting Iran’s denials that a U.S. warship in the Strait of Hormuz had destroyed an Iranian drone last week.
“Their Economy is dead, and will get much worse. Iran is a total mess!” he added.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a former CIA director, declined to address specifics of the arrests but said: “The Iranian regime has a long history of lying.”
“I think everyone should take with a grain of salt everything that the Islamic Republic of Iran asserts today,” he added. The rising tensions has led the U.S to increase its military presence in the region and send at least 500 U.S. soldiers to Saudi Arabia, Iran’s rival.
Last month, U.S. officials said American military cyberforces struck Iranian Revolutionary Guard computers, disabling systems that controlled its rocket and missile launchers. The cyberattack came after Trump backed away from an airstrike in response to Iran’s downing of a U.S. surveillance drone.
The Iranian official has been identified as the director of the counterespionage department of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. The clandestine official said some of the agents recruited by the CIA had turned and are now working with his department against the United States. Disclosing a CD with video of what Iran said was a foreign female spy working for the CIA, the disc included the names of several U.S. Embassy staff members in Turkey, India, Zimbabwe and Austria who Iran said were in touch with the recruited Iranian spies.
Iran occasionally announces the detention of people it says are spying for foreign countries, including the U.S. and Israel. In June, Iran said it executed a former Defense Ministry employee convicted of spying for the CIA. In April, it said it uncovered 290 CIA spies inside and outside the country over the past several years
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