Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence announced on Tuesday that it has arrested a network of “terrorists linked to Israel.”
Iranian media report that the ministry said it had made a number of arrests after identifying “large terrorist and sabotage” networks and “protected operative cells” working for Israel.
The ministry said this was the result of months of intelligence work and complex operations in several border and central provinces, which led to the exposure of “a regional Israeli base in one of the regional countries and the active elements of this base.”
The ministry claims that some members of the operative cells were arrested “as they were preparing for a terrorist operation” and, therefore, that attack was prevented.
The announcement indicates that during the arrests, officials found and confiscated a significant amount of explosives, machine guns, pistols and silencers, military and communication equipment and other “terrorist tools.”
The ministry indicated that, due to security reasons, further details about the detainees and their operations cannot be made public until a later date.
In recent years, there have been several explosions at Iranian military sites and locations connected with Iran’s nuclear program. An explosion last November at an IRGC base near Karaj was attributed to Israel by several Western news outlets.
Iran has also blamed foreign elements, and especially Israel, for sabotage operations and assassination operations involving nuclear scientists.
While Western countries have denied any involvement in these events, Israel has chosen to remain silent in the face of the accusations.
