Islam Times - Iran says it arrested 17 CIA spies, sentenced some to death

Islam Times - Intelligence official says the 17 were recruited by the CIA to spy on Iran's nuclear and military sites.

Iran has captured 17 spies working for the US intelligence agency, the CIA, and some have been sentenced to death, an official said.

Security agencies "successfully dismantled a [CIA] spy network," the head of counterintelligence at the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, whose identity was not revealed, told reporters in Tehran on Monday.

"Those who deliberately betrayed the country were handed to the judiciary," he said. "Some were sentenced to death and some to long-term imprisonment."

The announcement comes after months of soaring tensions between Iran and the United States, stemming from Washington's decision to exit the 2015 nuclear deal and reimpose biting economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

The intelligence official claimed that none of the 17, who allegedly had "sophisticated training", had succeeded in their sabotage missions.

Their missions included collecting information at the facilities they worked at, carrying out technical and intelligence activities and transferring and installing monitoring devices, he said.

Some of them had reportedly been recruited by falling into a "visa trap" set by the CIA for Iranians seeking to travel to the US.

"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," he said.

Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Tehran, said Iranian authorities also released a documentary which they said "shows to which extent these people went to try and exchange information with their CIA operatives outside the country".

"The authorities said that this has been the largest uncovering of a network of spies inside the country for many years," she added.

"The government believes it is a huge victory for them as they put an end to these activities for now."
The documentary, aired on state television on Monday, purported to show a CIA officer recruiting an Iranian man in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).