The Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Iran’s ideological army, has arrested several foreign diplomats on charges of espionage. This was reported by the Iranian Fars News Agency and state television. Among those arrested is the British deputy ambassador to Iran. It is unclear whether the detainees are still in detention. A spokesman for the British Foreign Office described the reports as “totally inaccurate”.
The TV channel showed pictures of British diplomat Giles Whitaker and his family in central Iran, who appeared to be taking soil samples. According to the program, Whitaker did this near an area where a missile test was taking place. State television said that these spies took soil samples in the desert of central Iran, where the Revolutionary Guards’ missile maneuvers were conducted.
According to state television, one of the other detainees was the wife of the Austrian cultural attache in Iran. A photo of Maciej Walczak, a university professor working in Poland, who was said to have visited Iran as a tourist, was also shown. The footage shows Walczak and three of his colleagues collecting samples from another region after visiting Iran to participate in a scientific exchange program. This sample set could also have coincided with a nearby missile test, this time in the southern province of Kerman.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners in recent years, mainly on espionage and security charges. Human rights groups have repeatedly accused Iran of trying to win concessions from other countries by detaining foreigners on trumped-up charges. Tehran denies arresting people for political reasons.
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