“Today, the power of the country’s intelligence organizations is such that they have captured spies from France, Sweden, the UK and several other countries,” Khatib said in an annual conference of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) commanders on Sunday.
The intelligence minister added that a number of those spies have been sentenced to death despite foreign pressures and have been executed.
Iran owes its success in arresting spies to the coordination and cooperation among the intelligence community forces, he stressed.
The minister also lashed out at the US for creating the Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) terrorist group, whose elements he said have connections with the Zionist regime, noting that Iran has thwarted many plots after around 200 Daesh elements entered the country recently in order to create problems and instability across the country, in the region, and in Iraq during the Arbaeen season.
In a statement released on Friday, the Intelligence Ministry said it has worked in close cooperation with the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization, the Police and the Judiciary to arrest a number of people in connection with the attack on the Shah-e Cheragh shrine in Shiraz that killed and injured a number of civilians on August 13.
The statement noted that the most important key element that provided logistical support for the terrorist attack, who was in Iran and was in charge of direct contact with the operational ringleader of Daesh in Syria and Afghanistan, has been arrested.
Two people were killed and eight others injured in the armed terrorist attack at the Shah-e Cheragh shrine on Sunday evening.
The Shiite shrine was the scene of a similar attack by armed terrorists last year.
On October 26, 2022, an armed terrorist barged into the shrine, killing 15 pilgrims, including women and children, and injuring dozens more before he was shot and injured by security forces.