UK denies report of British diplomat's arrest in Iran for "spying"

The British government has categorically denied Iranian reports that its deputy ambassador in Tehran had been arrested.

"Reports of the arrest of a British diplomat in Iran are completely false," a foreign ministry spokesman said in London on July 6, without offering further detail, according to France24. 

Fars news agency and state television had reported that Iran's Revolutionary Guards arrested several foreign diplomats including British deputy head of mission Giles Whitaker, accusing them of "spying."

"The Revolutionary Guards' intelligence service identified and arrested diplomats from foreign embassies who were spying in Iran," Fars said, adding that a British diplomat was subsequently expelled from the country.

State television however reported that Whitaker was only expelled from "the area" where the diplomats had been arrested in central Iran. State television accused him of "carrying out intelligence operations" in military areas.

The video showed images of a man presented as Whitaker speaking in a room.

A state TV journalist said the diplomat "was among those who went to the Shahdad desert with his family as tourists", referring to an area in central Iran.

"As the images show, this person took photos... in a prohibited area where at the same time a military exercise was taking place," the broadcaster said.