TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Several Iranians working directly for the country's nuclear research program were among those arrested recently for funneling information about the program to foreign nations, according to an Iranian media report.
The Tabnak report which was released on Tuesday did not say which countries were connected to the alleged spying ring or how many Iranians were arrested in the past few months. Tabnak is a semi-official Iranian news agency that is linked to a former commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The report said the arrests were made after media reports which claimed the United States and other Western intelligence agencies were trying to spy on Iran's nuclear program.
Two weeks ago, Iran arrested three alleged spies accused of working for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.
IRGC Commander Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari told Fars that those arrested included members of an Israeli spy network who collected and transferred information about Iran's nuclear and military centers. The network included members who had allegedly been trained in Israeli cities to carry out bombing attacks and assassination plots in Iran, Tehran's prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, told Fars.
In November, Iran executed Ali Ashtari, 45, who was convicted by Tehran's Revolutionary Court in June of spying for the Mossad in exchange for money, according to Iranian media reports. According to Ashtari's "confession," published by Fars, he was a salesman who obtained high-end but security-compromised pieces of electronic equipment from the Mossad and sold them to military and defense centers in Iran.
Several other Iranians are currently in custody, awaiting trial on charges of spying for foreign countries and planning terrorist activities inside Iran.
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Officials from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have refused to meet with former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, who is in Lebanon, Carter's spokesman Rick Jafculca said Wednesday.
Carter requested the meeting with the Iran-backed movement - which is recognized as a terrorist group by the United States - as part of a two-day visit to Lebanon
.....
Carter's Lebanon visit, which started on Tuesday, will be followed by a trip to neighboring Syria.
Carter's talks in Syria include a meeting with President Bashar Assad
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#3
First Zimbob and now the Hisbulla boys. Didn't they run you out of Darfur too? Your luster's wearing off, there, jimmuh. I told you to go check out that election in Venezuela. Can't understand why you passed up an opportunity like that. Oh well. How about Gaza? No. I got it. How about Islamabad?
#6
I'm positive Jimmy thinks he's got an unlimited open door to Barry O. He probably thinks that cullid boy is gonna be needing all the help he can get.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
