Tehran: Italy's ambassador to Iran was called to the Foreign Ministry in Tehran after Italian police arrested two Iranians who are accused of being part of a gang that sold weapons to the Middle East country.
"We have summoned the Italian envoy for explanation and to be informed on the dimensions of the issue," Ramin Mehmanparast, the ministry's spokesman, was cited as saying by the state-run Fars news agency yesterday. One of the Iranians is Hamid Masouminejad, a correspondent for the state broadcaster, Fars said.
Italian authorities blocked the export of weapons and explosives being shipped to Iran via Eastern Europe and intercepted 1,000 rifle scopes and 120 military scuba-diving jackets and oxygen tanks, Italy's Finance Police said.
The two Iranian suspects, who are living in Italy, and five Italians are in custody, police told reporters in Milan on March 3.
New game
"The news concerning these arrests demonstrates a new game" with "hidden intentions", Mehmanparast said.
Iran has announced weapons developments in recent weeks, hailing them as proof the country remains technologically self- sufficient while under international sanctions. The military unveiled a new generation of so-called smart bombs on March 1, after presentations in February of what it described as the first squadron of domestically manufactured fighter planes and the first Iranian-built naval destroyer.
The New York Times reported January 31 that President Barack Obama is accelerating the deployment of new US defences against possible Iranian missile attacks in the Gulf.
The US is pushing for tougher United Nations sanctions on Tehran's government over its nuclear programme.
The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency said in a February 19 report that Iran enriched uranium to 19.8 per cent, 0.2 percentage point below the threshold needed to start the chain reaction seen in an atomic bomb. Iran says its nuclear aims are peaceful.
The Italian probe, begun in June and dubbed "Operation Sniper," reveals the existence of a criminal group that smuggled arms via the former Soviet bloc, police said.
Investigators intercepted telephone calls, e-mails and text messages of conversations that unveiled arms-trafficking negotiations, Armando Spataro, Italy's anti-terrorism prosecutor, said.
