Iran’s official media said on Wednesday that the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) had detained a number of foreign citizens, including one of the United Kingdom’s senior diplomats. According to Fars news agency, the people were detained on suspicion of espionage after the IRGC witnessed them obtaining soil samples from a restricted region of the desert using drones. According to the report, the region was relatively near to where the IRGC had previously conducted missile operations. The detained included the UK deputy ambassador, who, along with his family, will be deported as a result of this incident.
‘These spies were gathering soil samples in Iran’s centre desert, where the Revolutionary Guards were conducting aerospace missile training,’ state television said. The state media broadcast a photograph of four individuals riding bicycles through the desert, and another of them collecting soil samples from the desert. Earlier, the US stated in a statement that a variety of businesses based in Iran, Vietnam, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Hong Kong ‘had aided Iranian energy trafficking, generating millions of dollars in illegal money,’ according to an AFP report.
‘While the United States remains committed to reaching an agreement with Iran that seeks a mutual return to compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,’ said Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson, ‘we will continue to use all of our authorities to enforce sanctions on the sale of Iranian petroleum and petrochemicals’.
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