In separate official written messages, Iran’s embassies in Vienna and Bern voiced concern over recent media reports indicating acts of espionage on the venues of the nuclear talks between Iran and 5+1 in the two European countries.
Iranian officials asked especially Austrian Foreign Ministry to take any necessary measures to provide security, including cyber-security, of the venue of the talks.
The revelation comes in run-up to a June 30 deadline for a historic agreement between Iran and 5 permanent members of UN Security Council plus Germany on Tehran's nuclear program which is supposed to remove sanctions against Iran, and a day after a Russian-based security firm said a computer worm widely linked to Israel was used to spy on the negotiations.
On Thursday, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland said that it began a criminal investigation on May 6 into unknown persons on suspicion of illegal intelligence activity. A few days later, investigators confiscated material, including computers, from a hotel to determine whether its IT systems had been infected by malicious software.
Israel has denied spying on the talks with Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely telling Israeli army radio on Thursday, "there is no basis to the all the international reports on Israel's involvement in the affair."
However, according to the Wall Street Journal, which revealed the story first, "Israeli officials have denied spying on the US or Israel's other allies, although they acknowledge conducting close surveillance on Iranians generally."
Vienna is currently hosting the latest round of the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the Sextet.