TEHRAN, IRAN: The former chief-of-staff of Iran’s armed forces said Tuesdaythat Western spies had used lizards which could “attract atomic waves” tospy on the country’s nuclear programme.
Hassan Firuzabadi, senior military advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah AliKhamenei, was responding to questions from local media on the recent arrestof environmentalists.
He said he did not know the details of the cases, but that the West hadoften used tourists, scientists and environmentalists to spy on Iran.
“Several years ago, some individuals came to Iran to collect aid forPalestine… We were suspicious of the route they chose,” he told thereformist ILNA news agency.
“In their possessions were a variety of reptile desert species likelizards, chameleons… We found out that their skin attracts atomic waves andthat they were nuclear spies who wanted to find out where inside theIslamic republic of Iran we have uranium mines and where we are engaged inatomic activities,” he said.
His comments came after news that a leading Iranian-Canadianenvironmentalist, Kavous Seyed Emami, had died in prison after he wasarrested along with other members of his wildlife NGO last month.
The deputy head of the Environmental Protection Organisation, Kaveh Madani,was also reportedly detained temporarily over the weekend.
Firuzabadi said Western spy agencies have “failed every time”. He saidanother espionage case involved a couple from Germany.
“They got them on a fishing boat from Dubai and Kuwait and sent them to thePersian Gulf to identify our defence systems,” he said.
“But when we arrested them, they said they had come for fishing and weretourists.”