TEHRAN - Iran's judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir says that two British nationals recently arrested in the country's southeastern city of Kerman are accused of spying for Western intelligence services. 

Judiciary spokesman announced on Wednesday that the arrests were carried out by the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) in Kerman Province, in coordination with security agencies.

According to Jahangir, the two suspects, identified as Craig and Lindsay Foreman, had been operating under the guise of conducting research and investigative work while secretly collecting classified information across multiple provinces. Investigations revealed their links to covert institutions associated with Western intelligence services.

The UK government has confirmed the identities of the detained individuals, and last week, the British ambassador to Iran, Hugo Shorter, met with them at the Prosecutor's Office in Kerman. The meeting took place at the request of the UK embassy and was facilitated by Iranian judicial authorities in coordination with security officials.

This is not the first time Iranian security forces have arrested individuals suspected of being Western spies disguised as tourists or researchers. Over the past decade, authorities apprehended two people for photographing sensitive military sites in a remote border province, detained another for collecting soil samples near a nuclear facility in a desert, and taken some others into custody following similar actions. 

Iranian intelligence agencies are usually able to identify links to foreign intelligence services quickly. However, Western states consistently deny any of those arrested are spies, without addressing the individuals' exposed ties. They also refrain from explaining why a tourist or researcher would opt to gather information on a remote military or nuclear facility instead of spending time at the countless tourist, historical, and cultural sites across Iran.