Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Iranian security forces have arrested a group of researchers involved in the development of the nuclear program. The news is given by the official agency Tabnak, linked to the Iranian revolutionary guards (Pasdaran), saying that an unspecified number of researchers have been arrested "in recent months" by the intelligence services, under the accusation of "having communications abroad" and of "revealing information connected to nuclear research and programs."
The report does not say to which country the researchers are suspected of supplying information; it is also not clear which project or nuclear plant they were associated with. But the document does specify that "the West and American intelligence services" have for some time had "the objective of inserting spies inside their research programs" on nuclear material in Iran.
In November, the official radio station of Teheran announced the dismantling of a spy network connected to Mossad, the Israeli secret service. On the 17th of the same month, Ali Ashtari was sentenced to hanging: the Iranian businessman was found guilty of being a spy for Israel, and of selling "materials infected with spying and security malware."