TEHRAN, Dec 17, (Agencies): Tehran has arrested an alleged US Central Intelligence Agency spy of Iranian origin before he could complete his mission of infiltrating the intelligence ministry, media quoted the ministry as saying on Saturday.

“Based on the scenario, he was supposed to infiltrate the intelligence ministry ... and feed it deceptive information on a large scale and spy on it,” said a statement reported by the ISNA news agency.
“The Iranian-origin CIA agent received complex training, had worked as an analyst and also worked with the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the statement added, without identifying him.

The man was first identified at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and arrested in Iran, the statement said, without identifying the man or saying when he was seized.

Several times in the past, Iranian officials have announced the arrest of suspected spies for the United States, but provided little information to substantiate the detention or allegations.

On Tuesday, Tehran’s chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabi said Iran had indicted 15 people on charges of spying for the United States and Israel, the Islamic republic’s nemesis, without providing any details.

In May, the intelligence ministry announced the arrest of 30 CIA “spies” allegedly engaged in espionage and sabotage.

It provided few specifics beyond saying the alleged ring promised US visas and residency to educated Iranians in several Muslim countries in a bid to gather information on Iran’s infrastructure and its nuclear, aeronautic, defence and bio-tech sectors.

Iran regularly accuses the United States of seeking to undermine its regime through covert operations.
Evidence of part of the US spying programme towards Iran came to light last week when Tehran displayed a US reconnaissance drone it said it had captured.

US President Barack Obama on Monday acknowledged Iran had the drone, a sophisticated and stealthy RQ-170 Sentinel, and requested its return, which Iran has refused.

Sanctions
Iran has prepared for “the worst case scenario” to circumvent toughened new Western sanctions targeting its central bank and oil exports, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in an interview published on Saturday.

“We are not really worried,” Salehi told the official IRNA news agency. “Appropriate responses have been prepared for the worst case scenario, and we have devised a road map” to circumvent new sanctions.
The remarks came after the US Congress approved a tough new proposal to impose an embargo against Iran’s oil exports and to cut off its central bank from the world financial system, effectively seeking its collapse.

The European Union is considering similar measures.

Salehi did not elaborate how the “road map” would deal with the fresh Western economic sanctions, which are in response to Tehran’s refusal to curb its controversial nuclear programme.
But he said Iran has managed to “circumvent” Western and UN sanctions since the 1979 Islamic revolution, while acknowledging that “sanctions have their effect.”

Iran is already subject to four sets of UN sanctions — designed to force it to give up uranium enrichment — along with severe additional US and EU sanctions.

The West alleges Tehran is seeking to acquire a weapons capability under the guise of its nuclear research programme. Iran denies any such ambition and says its work is only for civil energy and medical purposes.

In recent weeks, Iranian officials have insisted the country was ready to face new sanctions against the oil sector and central bank.

“Iran does not fear a European embargo on its oil,” said Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi in Vienna this week.

Iran is the second-largest oil producer in the OPEC cartel.

Qasemi also predicted that such a move would destabilise the market and be detrimental to the West.
For his part, Economy Minister Shamseddin Hosseini said Tehran was “fully prepared” to deal with sanctions targeting its central bank.

However, they have also conceded, in veiled terms, that sanctions in place since summer 2010 have had an impact on Iran’s economy, including its supply of foreign currency and ability to invest in key oil and gas sectors.

Qasemi acknowledged last month that there were either no “investments, or those which were available came with difficulties, because of aggressive actions” of Western countries targeting Iran’s energy sector.

A number of projects have been delayed or suspended after being declared non-priority.
Earlier in the week, central bank chief Mahmoud Bahmani suggested Iran must be managed “as if under siege” — referring to an early episode of Islam when the prophet and his followers were subject to an economic blockade by their opponents for three years.

Bahmani did not elaborate on the measures he thinks Iran should take to reduce the impact of a possible embargo against the central bank.

Drone
The United States is investigating a combination of pilot error and mechanical failure as possible causes for the crash of a classified US drone in Iran and does not believe Iran brought down the plane, according to two US government officials.

The unmanned RQ-170 Sentinel drone, which had been on a sensitive CIA surveillance mission over Iran, crashed and was apparently reassembled by Iran before being put on display in Tehran, said one of the officials, who was speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitive nature of the investigation.
While exactly what went wrong with the aircraft is not publicly known, it is now becoming clear that its operators could have crashed the plane and destroyed it if they had taken action while it was still at a higher altitude, according to a source familiar with the aircraft and its operation.

Instead, the stealthy drone built by Lockheed Martin Corp broke up into several large pieces, allowing Iran to reassemble the plane and possibly share some of its technological secrets with China, Russia or other US competitors.

Once the plane, built by Lockheed Martin Corp, dropped to a low enough altitude, its aerodynamic design made a catastrophic crash impossible, said one person familiar with the plane’s design and operating procedures.

Pilot error has not been confirmed, but it is one of the causes under examination, according to the two officials.

The new information explains why the drone was not destroyed and instead fell into Iran’s hands in an incident that has significantly heightened tensions with the United States.

Iran announced on Dec 4 it had downed the spy plane in the eastern part of the country, near Afghanistan. It has since shown an image of the apparently intact plane on television and said it is close to cracking its technological secrets.

Iranian officials have variously claimed they shot the plane down, or duped it into landing by resetting its navigational information.

The incident was the latest in a series that have escalated a confrontation between Iran and the West, which accuses the Islamic Republic of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies that charge.
US President Barack Obama has asked Iran to return the drone, but Iranian officials say they do not plan to give it back.

US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have confirmed the plane was on a CIA surveillance mission over Iran, but adamantly deny Iran shot it down, or brought it down through computer hacking.
Early on, officials said it likely suffered a technical malfunction, but this is the first time officials have raised the possibility of pilot error.

Lockheed has confirmed it makes the RQ-170 drone, which came out of its secretive Skunk Works facility in southern California, but is referring all questions about the current incident to the Air Force, which first acknowledged the existence of the drone in December 2009.

The plane measures over 40 feet from wing tip to wing tip, and carries a full-motion video sensor that was used this year by US intelligence to monitor al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan ahead of the raid that killed him.

The main concern about technology Iran could pilfer from the drone centers on special coatings on the craft’s surface that make it largely invisible to radar.

The computers onboard the drone are believed to have been heavily encrypted and its sensors were not the most sophisticated tools in the US arsenal.

The United States and other Western nations tightened sanctions on Iran last week and Britain withdrew its diplomatic staff from Tehran after hard-line youths stormed two diplomatic compounds.
The United States has not ruled out military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities if diplomacy fails to resolve a dispute over the program, which Washington believes is aimed at developing atomic weapons.