CIA Arrests: Iran claims capture of 12 CIA agents

CIA Arrests

Iran has arrested a dozen "spies" working for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported quoting an influential parliamentarian.

Parviz Sorouri, a member of Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said the alleged agents were coordinating with Israel’s secret service, the Mossad, and other regional agencies, targeting Iran’s military and its nuclear program.

“The U.S. and Zionist regime’s espionage apparatuses were trying to damage Iran both from inside and outside with a heavy blow, using regional intelligence services,” Sorouri was quoted as having said Wednesday.

“Fortunately, with swift reaction by the Iranian intelligence department, the actions failed to bear fruit,” Sorouri said.

The lawmaker did not specify the nationality of the CIA agents, nor the date and location they had been arrested.

The CIA declined to comment on the report.

Iran has been suspected by the United States and its allies for pursuing a nuclear weapons program which it denied.

This current announcement follows the unraveling by Lebanon's Hezbollah of a CIA spy ring in that country. Hezbollah has close ties to Iran.

The claim is similar to the June 2011 claim by Lebanon’s Hezbollah, whose leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said he had uncovered at least two CIA informants who had infiltrated the organization. Although U.S. authority initially denied the accusations, U.S. officials later confirmed Nasrallah’s story.

-Report from the Associated Press