<p>Iran arrested 17 suspects and sentenced some to death after dismantling a CIA spy ring, an official said Monday, as tensions soar between the Islamic republic and arch-enemy, the United States.</p>.<p>Security agencies "successfully dismantled a (CIA) spy network," the head of counter-intelligence at the Iranian intelligence ministry, whose identity was not revealed, told reporters in Tehran.</p>.<p>"Those who deliberately betrayed the country were handed to the judiciary... some were sentenced to death and some to long-term imprisonment."</p>.<p>The suspects were arrested between March 2018 and March 2019.</p>.<p>Tehran has been at loggerheads with Washington and its allies since May 2018, when President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from a landmark 2015 deal putting curbs on Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.</p>.<p>The US administration reimposed biting sanctions on Iran, which retaliated by increasing its enrichment of uranium beyond limits set in the nuclear accord.</p>.<p>Trump called off airstrikes against Iran at the last minute in June after the Islamic republic downed a US drone, one of a string of incidents including attacks on tankers in the Gulf.</p>.<p>The tensions have escalated since British authorities seized an Iranian oil tanker on July on suspicions it was shipping oil to Syria in breach of EU sanctions.</p>.<p>In what was seen by Britain as a tit-for-tat move, Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized a UK-flagged tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Friday, angering the US ally.</p>.<p>Iran said last month that it dismantled a spy network linked to the CIA.</p>.<p>"Following clues in the American intelligence services, we recently found the new recruits Americans had hired and dismantled a new network," state news agency Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported at the time, quoting an intelligence ministry official.</p>.<p>IRNA said Iran had carried out the operation in cooperation with "foreign allies", without naming any state.</p>.<p>At Monday's news conference, the Iranian counter-intelligence chief said 17 people suspected of espionage had been identified, all of them Iranians who had acted independently of each other.</p>.<p>The suspects had been "employed at sensitive and crucial centres and also the private sector related to them, working as contractors or consultants," said the official.</p>.<p>Some of them had been recruited by falling into a "visa trap" set by the US Central Intelligence Agency for Iranians seeking to travel to the United States.</p>.<p>"Some were approached when they were applying for a visa, while others had visas from before and were pressured by the CIA in order to renew them," said the official.</p>.<p>Their mission was to collect classified information and carry out "technical and intelligence operations at important and sensitive centres using advanced equipment," he said.</p>.<p>"All of the network's members, all the 17 people, were trained by CIA officers on how to set up safe communications."</p>
<p>Iran arrested 17 suspects and sentenced some to death after dismantling a CIA spy ring, an official said Monday, as tensions soar between the Islamic republic and arch-enemy, the United States.</p>.<p>Security agencies "successfully dismantled a (CIA) spy network," the head of counter-intelligence at the Iranian intelligence ministry, whose identity was not revealed, told reporters in Tehran.</p>.<p>"Those who deliberately betrayed the country were handed to the judiciary... some were sentenced to death and some to long-term imprisonment."</p>.<p>The suspects were arrested between March 2018 and March 2019.</p>.<p>Tehran has been at loggerheads with Washington and its allies since May 2018, when President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from a landmark 2015 deal putting curbs on Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.</p>.<p>The US administration reimposed biting sanctions on Iran, which retaliated by increasing its enrichment of uranium beyond limits set in the nuclear accord.</p>.<p>Trump called off airstrikes against Iran at the last minute in June after the Islamic republic downed a US drone, one of a string of incidents including attacks on tankers in the Gulf.</p>.<p>The tensions have escalated since British authorities seized an Iranian oil tanker on July on suspicions it was shipping oil to Syria in breach of EU sanctions.</p>.<p>In what was seen by Britain as a tit-for-tat move, Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized a UK-flagged tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Friday, angering the US ally.</p>.<p>Iran said last month that it dismantled a spy network linked to the CIA.</p>.<p>"Following clues in the American intelligence services, we recently found the new recruits Americans had hired and dismantled a new network," state news agency Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported at the time, quoting an intelligence ministry official.</p>.<p>IRNA said Iran had carried out the operation in cooperation with "foreign allies", without naming any state.</p>.<p>At Monday's news conference, the Iranian counter-intelligence chief said 17 people suspected of espionage had been identified, all of them Iranians who had acted independently of each other.</p>.<p>The suspects had been "employed at sensitive and crucial centres and also the private sector related to them, working as contractors or consultants," said the official.</p>.<p>Some of them had been recruited by falling into a "visa trap" set by the US Central Intelligence Agency for Iranians seeking to travel to the United States.</p>.<p>"Some were approached when they were applying for a visa, while others had visas from before and were pressured by the CIA in order to renew them," said the official.</p>.<p>Their mission was to collect classified information and carry out "technical and intelligence operations at important and sensitive centres using advanced equipment," he said.</p>.<p>"All of the network's members, all the 17 people, were trained by CIA officers on how to set up safe communications."</p>