Iran issues travel alert for citizens

The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a travel advisory on Sunday, warning its citizens of enticing offers by western intelligence services to recruit informants to spy on the Islamic Republic. The ministry advised all citizens who intend to travel abroad to refuse financial, job, trade, residential, and citizenship offers and other tempting offers made by strangers, and consult lawyers or Iran's embassies abroad. The alert came following a series of anti-Iranian activities of western intelligence and security organizations over recent years, according to the ministry. In November, Zohreh Elahian, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian parliament, said that Israeli Mossad, American CIA and British MI6 have established espionage centers in the Western, Northern and Eastern borders of Iran. The spying agencies have their centers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan near these countries' borders with Iran, said Elahian. The espionage bases are tasked with organizing terrorist actions and intelligence operations against Iran and its citizens, said the lawmaker. Iran said that in the past years it has arrested a number of local spies of Israel and the United States in the country.