TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Iran's security forces have apprehended a number of suspected spies at the southern province of Bushehr, said Iran's Intelligence Minister Seyyed Mahmoud Alawi on Tuesday, October 21, 2014, as reported by Iran's state-news agency IRNA.
Alawi, who spoke in front of a number of regional officials in the capital of Bushehr, said that a number of spies who had engaged in collecting sensitive information for foreign intelligence agencies have been apprehended due to the vigilance of Iran's intelligence agency in monitoring the movements and activities of foreign intelligence activities within Iran.
Alawi also said that those apprehended at Bushehr Province have been identified and have since been handed off to Iran's law enforcement agency.
The minister went on to remind his audience that Bushehr Province is a key province of Iran, which is seen as a centre of commerce, industry, military, and nuclear activities within Iran - as such, it has attained a special position that distinguishes it at the national level.
At the end of August, Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) announced that they have successfully shot down an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) near Iran's highly sensitive nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, central Iran.
An IRGC public relations official said in a statement that the stealth drone was attempting to stay under the radar, and was shot down when it was on a surveillance mission of the Natanz facility.
IRGC also said in the same statement that the aircraft was locked-on at by Iran's surface-to-air missiles. Prior to the drone's downing, IRGC had repeatedly warned that it had the right to respond and retaliate in self-defence.
Also in August, the head of Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi, said that the West and its' allies have attempted to sabotage Iran's nuclear facilities by deliberately selling faulty and sub-par components to Iran.
"It's a shame that Europe and the rest of the West have collaborated with the Zionist regime and the United States (US) to sabotage Iran's nuclear industry. If we decide to release the names of the industrial players that we have to the rest of the world, maybe then the rest of the world will comprehend the complexity and the depth of the situation at the moment," said Salehi to the press.
ANTARANEWS