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(Bloomberg) — Iran, locked in a worsening political standoff with Western powers, has handed down death sentences to several nationals accused of being part of a CIA-trained spy network uncovered earlier this year, an official said on Monday.

Seventeen people were arrested in all, a senior intelligence official told foreign media in Tehran. None of the suspects are dual nationals, according to the official, who declined to be identified and didn’t say how many were sentenced to death.

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The announcement marks a show of force by Iran at a time of turbulent ties with the U.S. after the Trump administration withdrew from a 2015 nuclear accord with the Islamic Republic and reimposed crippling sanctions on its economy.

Photo by Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

The friction was made worse by a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the U.K., which seized an Iranian oil tanker in Gibraltar earlier this month, saying it carried oil bound for Syria in violation of United Nations sanctions. Iran responded by holding a British tanker on Friday near the Strait of Hormuz, a shipping chokepoint through which about 40 per cent of the world’s seaborne oil travels.