Iran arrests group linked to ‘Zionists’
Tehran says it has detained “terrorists” armed with explosives provided by an unnamed Gulf state.
Iran’s intelligence ministry has arrested people planning bomb attacks with the support of Western and Israeli spy agencies in the oil-producing province of Khuzestan, according to an unverified report on state television.
“In the last few days a number of terrorist elements connected to foreign intelligence services … were identified and arrested along with a significant amount of explosives materials and items sent from a country in the Persian Gulf area,” the intelligence ministry statement said, according to Iranian state television’s website on Friday.
“These elements, led by Western-Zionist intelligence services, sought to commit other acts of sabotage, which were foiled.”
The statement said the individuals, who it did not otherwise identify or give details on, had planned to blow up parts of
Khuzestan’s energy infrastructure.
Iran periodically announces the capture of alleged US or Israeli spies, and often no further information is released.
Khuzestan, in Iran’s southwest, is home to a large population of ethnic Arab Iranians, also known as Ahwazis, who have long complained of and occasionally protest against economic deprivation and systematic discrimination.
The region has also periodically suffered violent action by fighters.
Iran has in the past accused Western intelligence agencies and the Israeli Mossad of carrying out attacks against its nuclear scientists.
Five Iranian scientists and academics have been killed or attacked since 2010, in incidents believed to have targeted Iran’s disputed nuclear programme, which the West says is aimed at producing a bomb, a charge Iran denies.
The US has denied involvement in the attacks, while Israel has remained silent.
Ten Iranian Arabs were sentenced to death in July 2006 in Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan, for a series of bombings.
Activists say Iran’s authorities have increasingly cracked down on Ahwazis, who complain about lack of employment, housing, and civil rights.
In June, UN human rights experts said Iran had executed four Arab Iranians after an opaque trial whose fairness was
questionable, and urged Tehran to halt all executions.