Amid increasing U.S. pressure, Iranian intel head brags of uncovering network of Western spies

https://yhoo.it/2W99vyE Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi boasted last week, without details, that his department had uncovered nearly 300 “CIA agents” and other Western spies around the world in an ongoing mole hunt, as well as disrupted violent terror cells and anti-revolutionary groups, according to reporting from Iranian media outlets. Alavi, a midranking conservative cleric, was appointed to his role in Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security in 2013 following the swearing in of President Hassan Rouhani. His remarks, likely intended to boost the role of the Intelligence Ministry within Iran, came on the heels of increasing U.S. pressure on the Islamic regime, including the State Department’s recent designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an arm of the Iranian government, as a terrorist group, as well as recent additional sanctions. He told observers during Friday prayers that his ministry had discovered agents working for both the CIA and British foreign intelligence agency MI6.