Iran's nuclear programme is suspected to be directed at weapons development Iran arrested 12 people linked with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who planned to target the country’s defense, the official Islamic Republic News Agency cited a member of parliament as saying.
“The main mission of these individuals was to harm Iran given its progress in the field of nuclear technology,” parliament member Parviz Sorouri said yesterday, according to IRNA.
The U.S. and Zionist regime’s espionage apparatuses were trying to damage Iran both from inside and outside with a heavy blow, using regional intelligence services,” Sorouri said.
“Fortunately, with swift reaction by the Iranian intelligence department, the actions failed to bear fruit,” Mr Sorouri said.
The lawmaker did not specify the nationality of the alleged agents, nor when or where they had been arrested.
Sorouri’s comments came two days after the U.S. expanded measures aimed at thwarting Iran’s nuclear program, targeting its central bank and oil industry with actions intended to cut the nation off from international financial transactions.
Earlier, Leabanon's Hezbollah uncovered a CIA spy ring in the country. Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, boasted in June on television he had unmasked at least two CIA spies who had infiltrated the ranks of the organisation. Though the US Embassy in Lebanon officially denied the accusation, American officials conceded that Nasrallah wasn’t lying and that Hizbollah had subsequently methodically picked off CIA informants.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Majles (parliament) retaliated against western economic sanctions imposed on it by approving a bill to reduce Tehran's diplomatic ties with Britain.
Iranian MPs on Wednesday voted by an overwhelming majority to downgrade Iran's relations with London from an ambassadorial level to that of chargé d'affaires.
The move came two days after the US and Britain targeted Iranian financial sectors with new punitive measures over the Islamic regime's disputed nuclear programme.
The chancellor, George Osborne, said on Monday Britain would sever all ties with Iranian banks, including the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), to limit the regime's access to international funding for its nuclear activities. The US said it would sanction Iran's oil and petrochemical industry as well as companies affiliated to the elite revolutionary guards or those involved in its nuclear programme.
Reacting, 228 members of the Iranian parliament issued a statement on Wednesday condemning Britain's move.
"Britain's government once again showed a depth of hatred and enmity towards the Islamic republic system worse than that of the devil and it took another step towards being an enemy…by announcing sanctions on the central bank," the statement said.
State news agencies reported the head of the parliamentary committee on the national security and the foreign policy, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, asked the government of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to expel the British ambassador to Tehran, Dominick Chilcott.
"Britain's policy is a hostile one and having normal relations with government is meaningless," he said.
The Guardian Council, a body of clerics and lawyers charged with vetting all parliamentary legislation, is yet to approve today's decision before it can legisltate.
Chilcott took his post as the new Tehran ambassador a few weeks ago after several months of tension between the two capitals. The UK embassy was meanwhile led by the charge d'affaires, Jane Marriott.
The British foreign office said "it would be deeply regrettable" if Irandecided to cut ties with the UK.
The United States and its allies suspect Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon program, a charge Iran denies.
The U.S. and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to develop atomic weapons under the cover of its nuclear program. Iran rejects the claim and says it needs nuclear power to meet the energy needs of its growing population.