Iran's claim

Trump says Iran's claim of arresting CIA spies is 'totally false'

By QUINT FORGEY and CAITLIN OPRYSKO

President Donald Trump on Monday denied Iran's claim that it had arrested a group of CIA spies, calling the report "totally false."

"Zero truth. Just more lies and propaganda (like their shot down drone) put out by a Religious Regime that is Badly Failing and has no idea what to do," Trump said in a tweet. "Their Economy is dead, and will get much worse. Iran is a total mess!"

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cast doubt on the claim earlier in the day, contending that the Islamic Republic "has a long history of lying."

"It's part of the nature of the Ayatollah to lie to the world," Pompeo told Fox News. "I would take with a significant grain of salt any Iranian assertion about actions that they've taken."

The secretary of State, who previously served as the director of the CIA, did not directly address Iran's claim that it had captured U.S. spies.

Iran announced earlier Monday that it has arrested 17 Iranian nationals allegedly recruited by the CIA to spy on the country’s nuclear and military sites, and that some of them have already been sentenced to death.

The arrests took place over the past months and those taken into custody worked on “sensitive sites” in the country’s military and nuclear facilities, an Iranian intelligence official told a press conference in Tehran.

He did not say how many of them got the death sentence nor when the sentences were handed down.

Asked about the reported arrests, Pompeo said he "can't add much to it specifically," but "would urge everyone who’s reading that story waking up to understand that the Iranian regime has a long history of lying."

The announcement from Tehran comes as Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers is unraveling and tensions have spiked in the Persian Gulf region. The crisis stems in part from Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of Tehran’s deal last year and intensify sanctions on the country.

Conflict between the two has been growing since, causing some to fear a military clash in the near future. Last week, the president announced that a U.S. warship had shot down an Iranian drone in a "defensive action," an assertion that Iran rejected. And weeks before, after Iran said it shot down an American drone, Trump approved and then called off a retaliatory airstrike, citing the potential loss of life as an unequal response.

The Iranian official did not give his name at the press conference on Monday, but was identified as the director of the counterespionage department of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. Such a move is highly unusual in Iran; officials usually identify themselves at press conferences. It is also rare for intelligence officials to appear before the media.

The official claimed that none of the 17, who allegedly had “sophisticated training,” had succeeded in their sabotage missions. Their spying missions included collecting information at the facilities they worked at, carrying out technical and intelligence activities and transferring and installing monitoring devices, he said.

The official further claimed the CIA had promised those arrested U.S. visas or jobs in America and that some of the agents had turned and were now working with his department “against the U.S.”

He also handed out a CD with a video recording of an alleged foreign female spy working for the CIA. The disc also included names of several U.S. Embassy staff in Turkey, India, Zimbabwe and Austria who Iran claims were in touch with the recruited Iranian spies.

Occasionally, Iran announces detentions of spies it says are working for foreign countries, including the U.S. and Israel. In June, Iran said it executed a former staff member of the Defense Ministry who was convicted of spying for the CIA.

In April, Iran said it uncovered 290 CIA spies both inside and outside the country over the past years.