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RFL/RE – Britain’s ambassador to Iran said a diplomat whom Tehran claimed it had detained on spying charges had in fact left the country late last year.
Simon Shercliff’s remarks, in a post to Twitter on July 7, followed contradictory reports about the status and whereabouts of Giles Whitaker, Britain’s deputy chief of mission in Tehran, and several other foreigners.
Iranian state-affiliated media on July 6 reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, known as the IRGC, had detained several foreign nationals, including Whitaker, over accusations of spying.
The IRGC said the foreigners, who reportedly included Polish and Austrian citizens, were observed by drones taking soil samples in a prohibited area in the central desert of Iran.
The IRGC said the group was arrested but did not say when or whether they were currently in custody.SEE ALSO:Britain Says Iranian Media Reports On Arrest Of British Diplomat ‘Completely False’
The semiofficial Fars news agency also published a photo showing four people in a desert setting that it identified as the group that had been detained. Fars also said Whitaker had been expelled from Iran after apologizing.
Britain’s Foreign Office on July 6 rejected the reports that a diplomat had been arrested, calling it “completely false.”
“These reports that our Deputy Ambassador is currently detained are very interesting,” Shercliff wrote on Twitter on July 7. “He actually left Iran last December, at the end of his posting.”
Neither Shercliff nor the Foreign Office indicated whether Whitaker had been detained prior to his departure.
Iran has in the past arrested dual nationals and those with Western ties, often on espionage charges, and leveraged them as bargaining chips in talks over other issues, such as nuclear negotiations.
Talks to revive the nuclear deal between Iran and several world powers have been stalled for months.
A recent effort to break the deadlock between U.S. and Iranian negotiators ended last week without a breakthrough.
Also on July 7, the British Defense Ministry announced that British naval ships had raided Iranian vessels earlier this year and seized weapons in waters south of Iran.
The seizures occurred on two separate occasions — January 28 and February 25 — and involved Royal Marines who “approached the vessels on two Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boats before securing and searching the vessels.”
On one occasion, it said, a U.S. naval helicopter was indirectly involved as well.
Weapons seized included “multiple rocket engines” for an Iranian cruise missile and 358 surface-to-air missiles,” the ministry said.
No further details were given, and it was unclear why the ministry made the announcement on July 7, months after the two incidents, although the timing suggested a coordinated effort by London to send a warning to Tehran.
