The Revolutionary Guards, Iran's ideological army, have arrested foreign diplomats accused of "espionage", the Iranian news agency Fars and state television reported on Wednesday (July 6th).
"The Revolutionary Guards intelligence service has identified and arrested diplomats from foreign embassies who were spying in Iran," Fars news agency said.
The agency said one of them, a Briton, was then “expelled from the country after he presented his apologies”.
But state television claimed the British diplomat, billed as Giles Whitaker, had been expelled from "the area" where the diplomats were arrested in central Iran.
In London, the Foreign Office denied the arrest of one of its diplomats in Iran.
"The press reports about the arrest of a diplomat are completely false," a spokesperson said.
It was not immediately known the nationality of the other diplomats arrested, their number and the date of their arrest.
rock in the desert
A television video shows footage of a man, billed as Giles Whitaker, talking in a room.
Giles Whitaker took over as deputy to Britain's ambassador to Tehran in 2018.
State television accused the British diplomat of having "engaged in intelligence operations" in "areas where" military maneuvers were taking place with missile tests.
According to the television, the British diplomat "is among the people who went to the Shahdad desert (...) as tourists. As the images show, this person was taking photos (...) in an area prohibited, where a military exercise was taking place at the same time".
According to the Fars agency, those arrested notably took rock samples in the desert for "espionage" purposes.
Israel pointed the finger
The television has implicated Israel, a sworn enemy of Iran, in these cases.
"Apparently, Israel wants to open a file on the possible military dimension of Iran's nuclear program, using third-country nationals who are linked to Western embassies."
State television also showed images of another arrested man, presented as "Maciej Walczak, head of the microbiology department at Nicolas-Copernicus University in Poland".
"This university is linked to the Zionist regime," she said in reference to Israel.
Maciej Walczak, whose nationality is not specified, "entered Iran with three other people within the framework of scientific exchanges, but he went to the desert region of Shahdad as a tourist when missile tests," said the same source.
He "took rock samples there".
Another arrested man is presented by television as "Ronald, the husband of the cultural adviser of the Austrian embassy".
He is accused of having "taken rock samples" in a village in the Damghan region east of Tehran and of having "filmed a military zone in Tehran".
With AFP
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