On 22nd of July, 2019, the government of Iran announced that they had arrested 17 Iranian citizens who were spying on Iran for the CIA. They were working in the country’s nuclear and military sites of Iran. The Iranian government said that some of them had been sentenced to death. However, US President Donald Trump called it “another lie” from Iran.
The arrests took place over the past few months. In a news conference by an Iranian intelligence official said, that the people who were taken into custody worked on “sensitive sites” in military and nuclear installations. The official said, that the 17 Iranian citizens who had “sophisticated training,” had succeeded in their sabotage plans. Their missions were to collect information where they worked. Not only that, they tried to carry out technical and intelligence activities and to transfer and install a monitoring device.
U.S. President Donald Trump said that the Iranian officials reports of capturing CIA spies were false. The president tweeted about the incident saying, “The Report of Iran capturing CIA spies is totally false.” He continued by saying, “Zero truth. Just more lies and propaganda (like their shot down drone) put out by a Religious Regime that is Badly Failing and has no idea what to do. Their Economy is dead, and will get much worse. Iran is a total mess!.”
The tension rose between Washington and Tehran after, President Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of Iran’s nuclear agreement with world powers last year.
Last month, the U.S. officials said that the American military cyber forces had struck the Iranian Revolutionary Guard computers. They had disabled the systems that controlled its rocket and missile launchers. The cybercriminal showed up after President Trump cancelled the airstrike. The Iranian official did not announce the name of the cybercriminal. However, he was identified as the director of the counterespionage department of the Iranian Intelligence Ministry
A few months back, the Iranian official claimed that they had arrested 290 CIA spies. These spies were inside and outside the country over the past few years.