Following the nine US sanctions on Iran and the tightening of relations with the West, the security forces of Tehran are carrying out a series of intelligence activities within the state apparatus. Thus, they arrested dozens of spies who work in state bodies, intelligence minister Mahmoud Alavi reported. It has not been specified when the arrests took place or for which countries the alleged spies worked, but it is certain that many of those arrested have dual citizenship.
"I asked to investigate those people with dual citizenship." The anti-espionage unit of the Ministry of Intelligence has successfully identified and arrested dozens of spies in various government bodies, "Alavi told the semi-official ISNA agency on Tuesday, explaining how the internal investigation started. .
The arrest came after Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that there had been "infiltration" of Western agents into Iranian decision-making bodies.
Tension between Tehran and some Western countries has increased since May, when US President Donald Trump withdrew from the international nuclear deal with Tehran and re-imposed some of the US sanctions that had been lifted after the 2015 deal in return. of restrictions on the program itself.
Iran does not recognize dual nationality and does not routinely announce arrests to this type of citizen, whose rights to consular assistance are enshrined in the Vienna Convention.
Alavi also said "we recently brought a member of a cabinet from a powerful country under our control," without specifying which country.
Some Iranian media said Alavi was referring to a former Israeli energy minister accused of serving as an Iranian agent by the Israeli internal security service.
Gonen Segev, minister of energy from 1995 to 1996, lived in Nigeria, where he contacted Iranian embassy officials in 2012, according to Israeli investigators.
He had been jailed in Israel in 2004 after being convicted of attempting to smuggle ecstasy pills into the country. He left Israel in 2007 after his release from prison.
Alavi said security forces arrested a member of the Islamic State militant group in southern Iran this month, and dissolved a "terrorist cell" in the north of the country.
He also said his ministry foiled several plots to bomb subway stations and several universities, without making any of the alleged incidents public.
Under the extreme Sunni Muslim ideology of the Islamic State, Shiites - the majority in Iran - are considered apostates. Last year, Islamic State militants carried out attacks on parliament in Tehran and the mausoleum of the founder of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. At least 18 people were killed in the attacks.