Iran intelligence chief acknowledges having Israeli spy

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s intelligence minister has boasted on state television about his country’s successful recruitment of a former Cabinet-level official from a “hostile” country, signalling Tehran’s first acknowledgment of compromising an arrested Israeli official.

Speaking on state TV late Tuesday, Mahmoud Alavi claimed his agency had a “member of the Cabinet of a hostile country” in hand.

He did not name the country or individual, but said it showed “the counter-espionage sector of the Intelligence Ministry is one the most powerful among world’s intelligence services.”

Alavi’s language and recent events signal he’s referring to Israel, one of Iran’s Mideast archrivals.

In June, Israel imprisoned former government minister Gonen Segev. Israel’s Shin Bet security agency accuses Segev of “committing offences of assisting the enemy in war and spying against the state of Israel.”