MI6 Spy Captured in Iran

Dadkhoda Salari, head of the revolutionary court of the Iranian city of Kerman, announced on Saturday that the spy has been arrested following 10 months of intelligence work.

Without revealing the suspect’s name, Salari described the accused as being more than 50 years old, having academic education, fluent in English, and without any official post.

The alleged spy has been in direct contact with four British intelligence officers 11 times, both inside and outside the country, the judiciary official added.

The arrested individual has even once had a meeting with British agents in London, Salari said, adding that the accused was now on trial and had confessed.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office in London said: "We don't comment on intelligence matters."

This comes as Iran and Britain have taken steps to normalize diplomatic ties that were cut off two years ago.

Iran's non-resident charge d'affaires to Britain made his first visit to London a few days ago, during which he met officials at the Foreign Office. The visit followed a trip to Iran earlier this month by Britain's new envoy to the country - the first diplomat for two years.

Relations between Britain and Iran were put on a slippery slope after the former decided to impose sanctions on Iran's Central Bank. Soon afterwards, a large majority of Iranian MPs voted to downgrade diplomatic ties with Britain.

Later angry Iranian students stormed the British embassy in Tehran and pulled down that country’s flag.

After the incident, Britain withdrew its diplomatic staff from the country on November 30 and asked Iran’s diplomatic delegation in London to leave within 48 hours.

But the deep freeze in bilateral ties began to thaw in September, when British Foreign Secretary William Hague held his first meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in New York and said his country was “open to better relations” with Iran.