Iran claimed Monday that it had smashed a CIA spy ring on its soil, saying among the 17 Iranian nationals netted by authorities had already been sentenced to demise.
U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, in an interview with Fox Information, dismissed the claims, insisting that “the Iranian regime has an extended historical past of mendacity.”
“It’s a part of the character of the ayatollah to mislead the world,” Pompeo mentioned in reference to Iran’s supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “I might take with a big grain of salt any Iranian assertion of actions they’ve taken.”
Chatting with dozens of journalists assembled within the underground press membership of Iran’s Ministry of Tradition, an Iranian counterintelligence official mentioned the 17 detained Iranian nationals had been working in plenty of key private-sector establishments in “financial, nuclear, infrastructure, army and cyber fields.”
“We have now intelligence dominance over the CIA’s espionage actions in Iran,” mentioned the official, who recognized himself as “director-general of the intelligence ministry’s counter-espionage division” however declined to provide his identify.
An accompanying presentation supplied to journalists confirmed enterprise playing cards for plenty of U.S. diplomats based mostly in Turkey, Austria, Zimbabwe and elsewhere who Iranian officers mentioned recruited the spies after they had been making use of for U.S. visas.
“A few of the Iranian residents get into the ‘visa lure’ and they’re requested to turn into spies in the event that they need to obtain visas,” the official mentioned.
Others, he mentioned, had been framed by the CIA after they wished to “keep or lengthen their visas.” CIA officers additionally approached Iranian residents by way of shell corporations or “on the sidelines of scientific conferences in European, African and Asian nations,” he mentioned.
The spies had been foiled by way of inter-service cooperation with Iran’s intelligence allies, the official mentioned. International locations whose intelligence providers allowed the CIA to recruit on their soil would “be held accountable,” he warned.
The presentation additionally featured pictures, mentioned to be of CIA operatives, taken from the suspected spies’ telephones. The spies had been enticed, mentioned the official, with guarantees of immigration to the U.S. in addition to jobs and cash as soon as there.
In March, Mahmoud Alavi, Iran’s intelligence minister, mentioned in an interview with the Iranian information company Tasnim that authorities had apprehended 290 suspected spies. Iranian intelligence providers routinely declare to have captured spies working for the USA or Israel.
Monday’s assertions come amid tensions between Tehran and Washington, in addition to an Iranian standoff with Britain over tit-for-tat seizures of oil tankers at sea.
The alleged spy bust, the official mentioned, was “one other international failure for the CIA.”
“Contemplating that CIA has been crippled, will probably be pure that this service tries to revive and rebuild itself, and naturally Iranian intelligence neighborhood will all the time be wakeful and vigilant,” he mentioned.
