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Iran’s state television announced that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards had arrested a number of foreigners to investigate espionage charges.
The British ambassador to Tehran said Thursday that the British diplomat, whose arrest was announced by Iranian state television on Wednesday, had left Iran in December 2021.
Media reports indicated that “the accused collected soil samples in a prohibited desert area where the forces were conducting missile tests.”
Iranian state media reported that “among those arrested are the husband of the Austrian cultural attache in Tehran and a Polish university professor.”
And Iran’s official Fars TV said that “the Iranian Revolutionary Guards have arrested two diplomats, including a Briton, on charges of espionage.”
The channel added that the Briton, whom it identified as the deputy head of the British diplomatic mission in Tehran, Giles Whitaker, was only removed from the “exclusion zone” in which diplomats were arrested in central Iran.
Iranian state television accused the British diplomat of “carrying out intelligence operations in military areas”, with a video showing a picture of a man speaking in a room that it claimed was Whitaker.
The Iranian TV correspondent said that the diplomat “and his family were among a number of tourists who traveled to the Shahdad desert,” referring to a desert area in central Iran.
He added: “As shown in the photos, this person took pictures in a restricted area coinciding with conducting military exercises there.”
“The news of the arrest of the second official in the embassy is very interesting,” Britain’s ambassador to Tehran, Simon Shercliffe, wrote sarcastically in a tweet, referring to Jill Whitaker, who served as the assistant ambassador in Tehran.
“He left Iran in December (2021) at the conclusion of his mission,” the ambassador confirmed.
In London, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday rejected Iranian information about the arrest of one of its diplomats.
A British Foreign Office spokesman said: “Reports that a British diplomat has been arrested in Iran are completely untrue.”
Fars news agency and Iranian television did not specify the nationality and number of the other diplomats.
soil samples
Iranian media showed a picture of a man it said was “Michie Vonchek, head of the microbiology department at Nicholas Copernicus University in Poland.”
Those reports claimed that “this university is linked to the Zionist regime”, in reference to Israel.
She stated that Funchek, whose nationality was not specified, “entered Iran with three other people as part of a scientific exchange, but they went to the Shahdad desert region as tourists while the region was witnessing missile tests.”
Iranian official media also said that the university professor took soil samples while he was in that area.
It is not yet clear how many and the nationalities of the people the Iranian authorities claim to have arrested, nor have they indicated the date of their arrest.
photo released, Getty Images
Qatar hosted the latest round of indirect talks between Washington and Iran
But state television said that “it is clear that Israel wants to open a file dealing with the military dimension of the Iranian nuclear program by using citizens of other countries (other than Israel and Iran) who have relations with foreign embassies” in Iran.
Israel strongly opposes the landmark nuclear deal concluded between Western powers and Iran in 2015, seeing it as a threat to its security.
Fars TV channel indicated that the people arrested by the Iranian authorities took soil samples “for the purpose of espionage”, including a person whom it called “Ronald, husband of the Austrian cultural attaché in Iran”, who said that he went to a village in the Damghan region of eastern Iran and all Rock samples.
The channel indicated that what it called “Ronald” is facing accusations of “photographing a military area in Tehran.”
Other arrests
The United States withdrew from the Iranian nuclear agreement in 2018 under former US President Donald Trump, who restored many of the economic sanctions imposed by Washington on Tehran, which prompted Iran to retreat from the nuclear commitments it had under the historic agreement.
Since then, Iran has been holding direct talks with the rest of the parties to the nuclear agreement – and indirect talks with the United States – since April 2021, as part of efforts aimed at reviving the agreement. But those talks hit a dead end in March.
Last week, Qatar hosted a round of indirect talks aimed at the return of direct talks in Vienna, but these discussions, which lasted for two days, did not result in any progress.
It is reported that a number of citizens of Western countries are being held in Iran, which activists describe as hostage-taking with the aim of forcing the West to make concessions.
Last Wednesday, Belgium’s parliament ratified a controversial prisoner exchange treaty with Iran, in its initial version that still needs to be subject to a full vote by parliament to turn into a binding agreement.
Iran also accused, last Wednesday, a French couple, who have been detained by the Iranian authorities since last May when they were on vacation, of “disturbing public security” in the country, according to what the judicial authorities in the country announced.
The French government condemned the arrest of the French couple, describing this risk as “unfounded.” Paris also asked Tehran to release the French nationals immediately.