TEHRAN, Iran – Iran said Saturday it has dismantled several U.S.-backed opposition networks that were gathering information on nuclear scientists and finding ways to circumvent controls on the Internet meant to deprive the opposition of its most crucial tool.

A judiciary statement carried on the official IRNA news agency said the networks were set up by Iranian opposition groups, including the People’s Mujahedeen, and that 30 of their members were arrested.

“A number of organized American cyber war networks were dismantled and 30 influential suspects were arrested … in a series of complicated security operations in the information technology and communications field,” IRNA quoted the statement as saying.

The government has repeatedly accused the U.S. and Britain of provoking the unrest that followed June’s disputed presidential election — charges both Washington and London have denied.

The statement comes as Washington is pushing for tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, which the U.S. and other nations fear is aimed at producing weapons. Iran denies such an intention and says its nuclear work is only for peaceful purposes like power generation.

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BAGHDAD – As the U.S. prepares to withdraw its forces from Iraq, Iran is said to be working hard to fill a potential power vacuum — an effort that faces its first big test in Sunday’s elections, in which Tehran is backing hard-liners against a coalition of moderates.

Shiite Iran already has reliable allies in Syria, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Gaza’s Hamas, and a free rein in Iraq would broaden its regional leverage, unnerving Israel and potentially diminishing the clout of Sunni powerhouses like Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

But it is Iran’s alleged political meddling — what U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill called its “malevolent involvement” — that most troubles U.S and Iraqi officials.

According to a senior Iraqi government security official with access to intelligence reports, it was Iranian influence that brought about the election alliance between two avowed Shiite rivals — the Sadrists who follow Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric believed to be living in Iran, and the Iranian-backed Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.

There are no reliable opinion polls, but the Shiite coalition, which is led by clerics and calls itself the Iraqi National Alliance, is expected to do well against Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a moderate Iraqi whose bloc is dominated by Shiites but also has Sunnis and Kurds.

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