But Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi did not confirm any new spy arrests.
Back in May, Moslehi announced the arrests of 30 American spies. He said many of them had confessed and their videotaped confessions would soon be broadcast on nationwide television. That was six months ago. No confessions have yet been broadcast.
There have been no announced trials or sentences for any American spies since then either.
Most allegations of spy captures by the Islamic Republic just fade into oblivion after the announced captures. Only in a few rare cases have alleged spies been named, shown at trial and sentences announced, prompting suspicion that very few spies have ever been captured and that most of the announcements are just propaganda fluff.
Last week’s claim of a new spy capture by Deputy Parviz Sorouri followed by two days—and may been inspired by—an ABC News report in the United States saying the Iranian government and Hezbollah in Lebanon had both broken up some US spy cells aimed at them.
Since then, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press have all pursued the story. Those three have all reported that Hezbollah broke up an American espionage effort, but none of them found any evidence of an American spy effort in Iran being broken up.
Intelligence Minister Mos-lehi seemed to confirm that. Asked about Deputy Sorouri’s assertion that Iran had arrested 12 American spies, Moslehi said, “This subject has mainly been raised by the Western media and it seems that Lebanon’s Hezb-ollah has arrested these spies.”
Moslehi was also asked about the progress of the investigation into the assassination of Majid Shahriari, a nuclear scientist killed one year ago on November 29, 2010, when a magnetic bomb was attached to his car by passing motorcyclists. Moslehi said: “This needs more work.”
Speaking about espionage against Iran in general, Moslehi said, “We will provide good information in this respect soon,” a standard promise of future announcements that rarely ever materialize.
On January 15, Admiral Ali Fadavi, chief of the Pasdar maritime forces, said his troops had shot down and captured two US Navy spy drones and proclaimed that they would be put on public display. Ten months have passed and they have not been.
On November 2, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi announced that Iran had 100 documents proving that the United States was carrying out terrorist operations all around the globe and would release that horde of documents soon. A month has now passed and nothing further has been said about any such release.
On May 26, Moslehi said 30 people duped into working for the United States as spies had been arrested. “Very soon, part of the confessions of the arrested members of this network will be broadcast,” Moslehi said. Six months have passed and there have been no confessions broadcast—and nothing further said about this band of spies.
The last clear instance of a “real” spy being caught by Iran dates back a full three years.
Ali Ashtari was hanged November 17, 2008, for spying on behalf of Israel. His trial in June was open to the media, a rare event.
Ashtari confessed to espionage, although confessions are not really a high standard of proof in the Islamic Republic. But Ashtari provided extensive details and the government showed off equipment it said Ashtari had been provided by Israel.
Ashtari’s case was the most heavily publicized instance of alleged Israeli spying in Iran since 2000 when 10 Shirazi Jews were imprisoned. In the end, they were not convicted of espionage but of lesser crimes, such as having contacts with foreigners. They were all freed long before their sentences of 4 to 13 years had been completed.
In the trial, Ashtari told how he was a businessman who traveled abroad and met with agents for Mossad in Thailand, Turkey and Switzerland. Ashtari sold telecommunications equipment, with some sales to Iran’s military services and to the nuclear program. Mossad gave Ashtari equipment it wanted him to provide to those programs. The equipment had small radios hidden inside so Mossad could listen in. Ashtari also produced a laptop through which he could send Mossad encrypted emails.