Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organization has arrested several foreign nationals, including the British deputy ambassador to Tehran, for espionage activities in restricted areas in deserts or near missile test sites.
A video shot by Iranian drones and released by the IRGC’s intelligence arm on Wednesday clearly shows the suspects visiting restricted areas with “no entry” signs.
“One of those identified is the British deputy ambassador who has gone to the Shahdad desert in Kerman with his family as a tourist, but, as recorded images show, he was taking soil samples when the IRGC Aerospace Force is conducting an exercise. missiles at the time,” the televised report said.
The video showed Giles Whitaker, deputy chief of mission at the British embassy in Tehran, and his family. “Whitaker was expelled from the city to which he had traveled after apologizing,” the report says.
Whitaker was reportedly an army officer before a long career at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
One of the detainees was identified as the husband of the Austrian cultural attaché in Iran. He had traveled to a village in the center of Damghan, in Semnan province, and took soil samples from the area. He had been caught filming a military district in Tehran before, Press TV reported.
The clip also featured a photo of a third foreigner, identified as Maciej Walczak, a university professor in Poland, who was visiting Iran as a tourist.
“He entered the country under the guise of a scientific exchange with a university, but went as a tourist to the Kerman and Shahdad region at the time of a missile test, where he took samples of soil, water, rock, salt and mud. He is the head of the biology and biotechnology department at Copernicus University in Poland, which is associated with the Zionist regime,” the report says.
In May, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry said it had arrested two European citizens who were plotting to foment chaos, social disorder and insecurity in the country.
Source: Press TV