Iran sentences ‘agent for Israel’s Mossad’ to death

A court has sentenced an alleged agent for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency to death, said Iran's judiciary.

A report on the judiciary's news website Mizanonline.ir quotes Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as saying that the suspect had communicated information about some 30 significant Iranian figures to Mossad.

He said on Tuesday the 30 Iranians were involved in research, military and nuclear projects - including two who were killed in bomb attacks in 2010 - nuclear engineer Majid Shahriari and physicist Masoud Ali Mohammadi.

The report says the suspect provided information in return for money and obtaining residency in Sweden. It did not elaborate.

Iran occasionally announces similar verdicts. The fates of those sentenced remain unknown.

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held talks with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, saying his country will not allow Iran to "establish itself militarily in Syria".

Both Russia and Iran are backing President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the civil war in neighbouring Syria.

"The meeting mostly dealt with Iran's attempt to establish itself militarily in Syria," Netanyahu's office said in a statement of the talks in Jerusalem.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu told Russian Defence Minister Shoigu, 'Iran needs to understand that Israel will not allow this.'" 

The statement said Netanyahu also told Shoigu that "Iran will have an arsenal of nuclear weapons within eight to ten years" if the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers including Russia is not changed.