TEHRAN, 1 September 2004 — Iran has arrested dozens of spies, including several who passed secrets about its nuclear program to its enemies, Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi said yesterday.
“The Intelligence Ministry has arrested a number of spies that transferred Iran’s nuclear intelligence (abroad),” Yunesi was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
Yunesi said most of those arrested were linked to the Iraq-based Iranian opposition group the People’s Mujahedeen Organization (MKO).
The MKO’s political wing, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), made public several undeclared nuclear facilities in Iran in 2002.
But the council denied that any NCRI or MKO informers had been arrested.
Yunesi did not say when the arrests took place, but his remarks came after Iran’s “government week” in which ministries catalogue their achievements over a broad timeframe.
The minister said elements that were no longer a part of Al-Qaeda “were infiltrated by intelligence services from America, Europe and even the region”.
“A number of them were activated by these services to commit terrorist acts, but we identified and arrested them,” he said, without giving further details.
“There is no security in the region without Iran, and if the United States or any other country threatens our security, their security will also be threatened,” the minister warned.
