British spy arrested in Iran: Iranian media

Iranian intelligence authorities have arrested a man on charges of spying for Britain's secret intelligence service, known as MI6, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

The report comes days after an American missing for six years in Iran was revealed to be a spy.

The head of the revolutionary court in Iran's southeastern Kerman region, Dadkhoda Salari, told the news agency on Saturday that the suspect made contact with British agents 11 times in recent months, both inside and outside the country.

According to Salari, the suspect has admitted his guilt and is currently on trial.

A spokeswoman for the Britain's Foreign Office said, "We don't comment on intelligence matters."

The report, which the Reuters news agency could not verify, comes at a time when London and Tehran have been taking steps towards restoring diplomatic relations that were broken off after activists stormed the British embassy in Iran more than two years ago.

In November, six world powers made a breakthrough deal with Tehran to curb its nuclear program in return for limited sanctions easing.

The agreement appeared to face its first major difficulty on Friday, when Tehran pulled out of the technical-level of the denuclearization talks to protest the expansion of a U.S. blacklist of companies and individuals allegedly supporting Iran’s atomic program. Tehran said the U.S. move violated the spirit of last month’s agreement.

The arrest also comes after an American who went missing in Iran six years ago was revealed to be working as a U.S. spy by two media outlets on Thursday.

The U.S. government claimed that Robert Levinson had visited an Iranian resort on Kish Island on business, but according to lengthy reports in the Washington Post and Associated Press, he was in fact there as a paid agent of the CIA.

Levinson vanished months after his arrival, and has not been heard from for three years. It’s not clear whether he’s alive.

To pre-empt a potentially embarrassing lawsuit, the Central Intelligence Agency also paid Levinson's family $2.5 million, according to media reports.

Al Jazeera and wire services