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Iran says CIA spy network dismantled as regional tensions ratchet up
TEHRAN, June 18, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Iran said Tuesday it had dismantled a US
spy network, after Washington announced it would deploy 1,000 more troops to
the Middle East and as key powers expressed concerns about regional tensions.
Tehran’s announcement came a day after it said its uranium stockpile will
on June 27 surpass a limit agreed in the 2015 nuclear deal, a multilateral
agreement Washington unilaterally abandoned in May last year.
Tensions between Tehran and the US have escalated ever since, with
Washington bolstering its military presence in the region, reimposing
sanctions and blacklisting Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist
organisation.
“Following clues in the American intelligence services, we recently found
the new recruits Americans had hired and dismantled a new network,” Iran’s
state news agency IRNA said, quoting an intelligence ministry official.
It said some members of the alleged CIA network had been arrested and
handed over to the judiciary, while others still required “additional
investigations”.
In what it termed a “wide-reaching blow” to US intelligence, IRNA said
Tehran had carried out the operation in cooperation with “foreign allies”,
without naming any state.
The agency’s source did not specify how many agents were arrested or if
they were operating only in Iran.
– ‘Show restraint’ –
In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday
urged all sides “to show restraint.”
“We would prefer not to see any steps that could introduce additional
tensions in the already unstable region,” he told journalists.
And China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned all sides “not to take any
actions to provoke the escalation of tension… and not to open a Pandora’s
box.”
He urged Washington to “change its practise of extreme pressure” but also
called on Tehran not to abandon the nuclear agreement “so easily.”
On Monday, Washington piled on the pressure against Iran by announcing a
new troop deployment.
“I have authorised approximately 1,000 additional troops for defensive
purposes”, acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan said in a statement.
The United States has blamed Iran for last week’s attacks on two tankers in
the Gulf of Oman, an accusation Tehran denies as “baseless.”
The Pentagon released new images on Monday that it said showed Iran was
behind the attack on one of the ships.
The US argument centres on what it describes as an unexploded limpet mine
on the Kokuka Courageous tanker ship that it says was removed by Iranians on
a patrol boat.
“Iran is responsible for the attack based on video evidence and the
resources and proficiency needed to quickly remove the unexploded limpet
mine,” the Pentagon said in a statement accompanying the imagery.
The US released a grainy black and white video last week it said showed the
Iranians removing the mine, but has not provided an explanation for why they
allegedly did so while the US military was in the area. French President
Emmanuel Macron took a more circumspect line, saying that “only once all the
information has been gathered and all the doubts lifted can the attributions
(of blame) be made in a certain way.”
The images released Monday show the site where the unexploded mine was
allegedly attached, personnel on a patrol boat who are said to have removed
the device, and damage from another device that did explode.
Tehran has vehemently denied any involvement in the attack on the Kokuka
Courageous and another ship, and hinted that Washington itself could have
done it to pile further pressure on the Islamic republic.
– Iran ultimatum –
Iran’s atomic energy organisation spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said Monday
that the country would soon pass the amount of low-enriched uranium allowed
under the nuclear deal.
“The countdown to pass the 300 kilogrammes reserve of enriched uranium has
started and in 10 days’ time… we will pass this limit,” Kamalvandi said.
The move “will be reversed once other parties live up to their
commitments,” he added.
US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus responded that the world
“should not yield to nuclear extortion.”
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani announced on May 8 that Iran would stop
observing restrictions it had agreed to in the nuclear deal, in retaliation
for the US withdrawal.
Rouhani also warned that his country will further scale down nuclear
commitments by July 8 unless remaining parties to the deal — Britain, China,
France, Germany and Russia — help it circumvent US sanctions and sell its
oil.
On Tuesday, he reiterated in a speech that Tehran was committed to the
nuclear deal and said there was “no one in the world that does not praise
Iran.”
European leaders have urged Iran to stick to the deal, which saw the
country pledge to reduce nuclear capacities for several years and allow
international inspectors to monitor its activities on the ground in return
for relief from international sanctions.
The deal set a limit on the number of uranium-enriching centrifuges, and
restricted the country’s right to enrich uranium to no higher than 3.67
percent, well below weapons-grade levels of around 90 percent.
BSS/AFP/RY/1648 hrs