Trump: Iran is a ‘total mess,’ ‘zero truth’ to spy claims

After Iran announced it arrested 17 Iranians allegedly recruited by the CIA, President Trump and other U.S. officials dismissed the veracity of these claims.

By World Israel News and AP

Following Iran’s announcement Monday regarding 17 Iranian nationals who were allegedly recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency to spy on the country’s nuclear and military sites, U.S. President Donald Trump responded that the claim had “zero truth.”

Taking to Twitter, Trump wrote, “The report of Iran capturing CIA spies is totally false. … Just more lies and propaganda (like their shot down drone) put out by a religious regime that is badly failing and has no idea what to do.”

In what was likely a reference to crippling sanctions imposed by the U.S., Trump added, “[Iran’s] economy is dead, and will get much worse. Iran is a total mess!”

With regard to the alleged spies, Iran also announced that some of them had already been sentenced to death.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a former CIA director, declined on Monday to address specifics of the arrests, but added that “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 said. “They have 40 years of history of them lying, so we should all be cautious reporting things that the Iranian leadership tells us.”