According to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcaster (IRIB), Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani said on Monday that as the US National Security Adviser John Bolton had revealed last week, the United States is carrying out cyber operations “to say to Russia, or anybody else that’s engaged in cyberoperations against us, you will pay a price.”
Shamkhani said that the US cyberoperations against other countries is nothing new and the hostile country has a long history of carrying out such operations.
The top Iranian security official added that a large and complicated CIA cyber espionage network had recently been discovered and dismantled.
He added that the dismantled network was a significant part of CIA operational capacity in target states, which was identified by Iranian intelligence apparatuses and hit.
He further pointed out that Iran and many other countries in the world have formed an ‘international anti-spying network’ against the United States, adding “we provided the information on the exposed network to some other allied countries in which it had been operating which resulted in the exposing and dismantling of the US intelligence officers network and arrest and conviction of some CIA agents in different countries.”
Shamkhani also noted that some details of the case had already been disclosed by the CIA itself, calling on the Iranian Intelligence Ministry to publish the related videos and confessions in near future.
The top Iranian security official added that Iran as the guarantor of security in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz has so far provided initiatives to the regional countries to reduce the tensions, while noting that the US intervention has widened the gaps between the regional countries.
With regard to the 10th International Meeting of High Represisntatives for Security Issues, which will kick off tomorrow in Ufa, Russia, he said that the US abnormal behavior in breaching international agreements would be one of the major topics that would be discussed in the Russia-hosted summit.
As it has been reported earlier today, Shamkhani will leave for Russia on Tuesday to attend the meeting.
KI/4643420