(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday said Iran is lying about having arrested 17 Iranian nationals recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency to spy on the country’s nuclear and military sites. “That’s totally a false story. That’s another lie,” Trump told reporters at the White House. In Tehran, an Iranian intelligence official told a news conference that the arrests took place over the past months, and that those taken into custody worked on “sensitive sites” in the country’s military and nuclear facilities. Trump also said Iran has “disrespected” the United States, and that it is “getting harder” for him to want to make a deal with Iran to replace the 2015 nuclear deal that Trump pulled out of last year. He called Iran a “very mixed up country” with big economic problems and a restive population. “They have a lot of problems,” he said.