--- title: Iran Plans to Execute 17 Accused of Being CIA-Trained Spies description: Iran has handed down death sentences to several nationals accused of being part of a CIA-trained spy network uncovered earlier this year. canonical: https://time.com/5631495/iran-cia-spies/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-07-22T11:13:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T00:02:38.289Z article:section: World og:title: Iran Plans to Execute Some Accused of Being CIA-Trained Spies og:description: Amid a worsening political standoff with Western powers og:url: https://time.com/5631495/iran-cia-spies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Iran Plans to Execute Some Accused of Being CIA-Trained Spies twitter:description: Amid a worsening political standoff with Western powers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Iran Arrested 17 People Accused of Being CIA-Trained Spies ## Video: President Donald Trump Reacting to News that Iran Seizes Two Vessels from the U.K. [Watch (HLS stream): President Donald Trump Reacting to News that Iran Seizes Two Vessels from the U.K.](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/eNwCDsZv.m3u8) (0:32)  _Published 2019-07-19. Britain’s foreign secretary said Iranian authorities seized two vessels Friday in the Strait of Hormuz, actions signaling an escalation in the strategic waterway that has become a flashpoint in tensions between Tehran and the West._ by [Golnar Motevalli / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Golnar Motevalli / Bloomberg Jul 22, 2019 11:13 AM CUT by [Golnar Motevalli / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Golnar Motevalli / Bloomberg Jul 22, 2019 11:13 AM CUT Iran, locked in a worsening political standoff with Western powers, has handed down death sentences to several nationals accused of being part of a CIA-trained spy network uncovered earlier this year, an official said on Monday. Seventeen people were arrested in all, a senior intelligence official told foreign media in Tehran. None of the suspects are dual nationals, according to the official, who declined to be identified and didn’t say how many were sentenced to death. The announcement marks a show of force by Iran at a time of turbulent ties with the U.S. after the Trump administration withdrew from an 2015 nuclear accord with the Islamic Republic and reimposed crippling sanctions on its economy. The friction was made worse by a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the U.K., which seized an Iranian oil tanker in Gibraltar earlier this month, saying it carried oil bound for Syria in violation of United Nations sanctions. Iran responded by holding a British tanker on Friday near the Strait of Hormuz, a shipping chokepoint through which about 40% of the world’s seaborne oil travels. The Iranian Intelligence Ministry has detected an uptick in U.S. efforts to recruit spies in Iran since the election of President Donald Trump in 2016 and the appointment of Gina Haspel as director of the CIA last year, the official said. Iranian officials have identified the CIA agents who had recruited the suspects as diplomats based in Turkey, Zimbabwe and Finland. A program aired by state television on Monday showed clips of Trump and National Security Adviser John Bolton with Hormuz as the backdrop. The show identified the alleged members of the cell and contained what the network said were confessions by the accused, whose faces were blurred and voices distorted. The alleged spies were trained by the CIA to gather classified information from sensitive locations in Iran including military bases, nuclear facilities and economic centers, the official said. The American spy agency lured recruits by promising residency and jobs in the U.S. and safe passage out of Iran, setting up shell companies as a cover to approach and hire Iranians, he added. (Updates with the state-television program in seventh, eighth paragraphs.) _–With assistance from Ladane Nasseri and Arsalan Shahla._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5631495/iran-cia-spies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5631495/iran-cia-spies/"},"headline":"Iran Arrested 17 People Accused of Being CIA-Trained Spies","datePublished":"2019-07-22T11:13:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T00:02:38.289Z","description":"Amid a worsening political standoff with Western powers","url":"https://time.com/5631495/iran-cia-spies/","keywords":["Iran","Bloomberg","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Golnar Motevalli / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/iran/","name":"Iran"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5631495/iran-cia-spies/","name":"Iran Arrested 17 People Accused of Being CIA-Trained Spies"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Donald Trump Reacting to News that Iran Seizes Two Vessels from the U.K.","description":"Britain’s foreign secretary said Iranian authorities seized two vessels Friday in the Strait of Hormuz, actions signaling an escalation in the strategic waterway that has become a flashpoint in tensions between Tehran and the West.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/eNwCDsZv/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-07-19T20:46:18.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/eNwCDsZv.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5631495/iran-cia-spies/","duration":"PT32S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5631495/iran-cia-spies/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```