Iran Claims Uncovering of Large CIA Espionage Network - Will Share Intelligence with Allies

Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani has claimed the country's intelligence apparatus successfully neutralised a large cyber-espionage network run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which had been collecting intelligence on Iran and a number of other states. Secretary Shamkhani stated regarding this development: “The United States is engaged in extraterritorial cyber attacks to show Russia and other countries that they would pay a price for [their alleged] interference in America’s affairs… It is interesting to know that one of the most complicated cyber networks run by the CIA in the area of cyber-espionage, which accounted for a major part of the CIA’s operational capacity in target countries, has been uncovered by Iran's intelligence apparatus and [a serious] blow has been dealt to it.” This development came at a time of growing tensions between the United States and Iran, with the former deploying considerable military assets to the Persian Gulf region and increasing economic sanctions aimed and putting ‘maximum pressure’ on Tehran while the latter has lifted restrictions on uranium enrichment and hinted at potential pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

Secretary Shamkhani further added that, in line with intelligence cooperation between Iran and a number if its allies, several states would be provided with intelligence on the CIA’s espionage activities. Iran maintains close defence and intelligence cooperation with China, North Korea, Russia and Syria among others - all leading targets for Western espionage activities. This was referred to as an anti-U.S. “international counterespionage network” of American target states. The secretary stated regarding this intelligence sharing: “We relayed intelligence on the discovered [CIA] network, which was also active in a number of other countries, to our allies, which led to the collapse of the network of CIA’s intelligence officers as a result of which a number of spies were arrested and punished in various countries.”