The Iranian Revolutionary Guards arrested several foreign diplomats, including a British, on charges of "spying".
This was reported by the Iranian press agency Fars and state television.
"The Revolutionary Guards intelligence service identified and arrested foreign embassy diplomats spying in Iran," writes Fars.
According to the Iranian press, one of them would be the
British diplomat
Giles Whitaker, but the news was
denied by London
.
A video aired by state television shows a man, Whitaker, speaking in a room similar to a classroom.
According to the television reporter, the diplomat "is one of the people who went to the Shahdad desert with his family as a tourist".
"As the pictures show, this person was taking pictures (...) in a prohibited area, where a military exercise was taking place."
According to the TV, he "was expelled from the area after apologizing".
But according to the Fars news agency, the British "was expelled from the country after apologizing".
The British government has categorically denied reports from Iran that its deputy ambassador to Tehran was arrested "for espionage", along with other diplomats whose nationality is unknown.
"
The reports of the arrest of a British diplomat in Iran are completely false
," a spokesman for the foreign ministry told London.