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Iran announces arrest of alleged ‘Israeli spy’

Islamic Republic says it arrested an ‘Israeli spy,’ accusing the Mossad, CIA and European spy agencies of trying to infiltrate Iran.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Iran says it arrested an “Israeli spy” in a roundup of suspected foreign agents in the north of the country, the Fars news agency reported Monday.

An Iran security official said that forces in the province of East Azerbaijan that borders Armenia and Azerbaijan captured several spies who worked for foreign intelligence agencies, including an agent who carried out espionage operations for Israel.

“An Israeli spy and several others tied to different countries’ security services have been arrested in the province,” the director-general of the Iranian intelligence ministry in East Azerbaijan province told Fars.

Iran has been on high alert since its top nuclear scientist was assassinated in November last year in a high-tech attack that Iran blamed on Israel.

A report in a British newspaper in February claimed that Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was was shot dead by Mossad agents using a one-ton remote-controlled rifle smuggled into the country piece by piece over eight months by a team of more than 20 spies.

“Foreign intelligence forces in collaboration with the CIA, Israel’s Mossad and certain European intelligence services were seeking to spy on Iran’s nuclear, political, economic, military and infrastructural projects,” Fars reported. The Intelligence Ministry said the goal of the spy agencies is to sabotage Iranian infrastructure and projects and hinder Iran’s access to modern technologies as well as creating “challenges in Iran’s ties with other countries.”

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Despite the setback caused by the killing of Mohsen and numerous mysterious explosions at Iranian military facilities last year, the Intelligence Ministry claimed that the “wicked moves taken by foreign spying services failed with the vigilance and all-encompassing intelligence dominance of Iran’s forces,” the report said.

Last August, Iran also announced the arrest of several people it claimed were “spies cooperating with foreign intelligence agencies” who had had infiltrated the foreign ministry, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and the companies producing parts for the defense ministry.