Iran claims it has captured 17 "CIA spies" and some have been sentenced to death amid escalating tensions with the US.

An intelligence ministry official told state television that CIA operatives infiltrated critical sectors of Iran, and its agents had broken up a spy ring.

The US has not yet responded to the claims.

The news emerged amid Iran's spiralling crisis with the West and escalating tensions in the Gulf, where Iran seized a British-flagged oil tanker in the Persian Gulf on Friday.

Theresa May will chair a meeting of the Government's emergency committee Cobra on Monday.

Hostilities between Iran and the West, mainly the US, have increased after Washington imposed new, tighter sanctions in May.

The sanctions were introduced after President Donald Trump pulled out of a nuclear deal signed by his predecessor Barack Obama.

The deal had provided Iran access to world trade in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.

Britain's Royal Marines seized an Iranian tanker off the coast of Gibraltar earlier this month as the UK claimed the vessel had violated sanctions on Syria.

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