US expels Iranian 'spies'

2004-06-29 18:04

New York - Two security guards at Iran's UN mission have been expelled from the United States after being caught three times filming bridges, tunnels and modes of transport, US officials said on Tuesday.

The pair were discovered videotaping in June 2002, November 2003 and again recently around New York, finally prompting their expulsion, said an official who asked not to be named.

"We were concerned because their activities were incompatible with their stated purpose for being in the country," Richard Grenell, spokesperson for the US mission at the United Nations said. He said they were already gone.

In Tehran, a foreign ministry official cited by Iran's official state news agency said the expulsions were "politically and ethically cheap" and contrary to international conventions.

"This is aimed at disrupting the daily routine of Iran's permanent representation office, and this is not in harmony with the accepted norms," the unnamed official said.

Morteza Ramandi, a spokesperson quoted by Iran's student news agency ISNA, said the guards had only been visiting "one of New York City's tourist attractions."

Along with North Korea and the former Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, the Islamic Republic of Iran is on US President George W Bush's "axis of evil", and blamed by Washington for sponsoring terrorism.

The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Iran in 1980 after the US embassy in Tehran was seized by radicals in the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution that ushered in the country's clerical regime.

- AFP