AFP | Hiedeh Farmani | 13 July 2010

Iran scientist ‘flees to Pakistan embassy’ in US

Iran’s interests in the US are managed by the Pakistan embassy as Tehran and Washington have no diplomatic ties.

“Shahram Amiri, the abducted Iranian expert, took refuge in Iran’s interest section in Washington hours ago,” state television’s website said.

Mehr news agency said Amiri who was “abducted by Americans went to Iran’s interest section… and asked for a quick return to Tehran.”

State news agency IRNA, meanwhile, quoted an “informed source” from the Iranian foreign ministry as saying that its officials had “contacted the Iranian interest section in Washington which confirmed the report that Shahram Amiri had taken refuge there.”

Iran’s interests in the United States are managed by the Pakistan embassy as Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic ties for more than three decades.

Neither Pakistan embassy nor US State Department officials were immediately available for comment.

Iranian officials have long maintained that Amiri was kidnapped by US agents from Saudi Arabia last year after he arrived for a Muslim pilgrimage.

Iran last week said it had submitted “evidence” to the Swiss embassy that Amiri was abducted by US intelligence agents. The Swiss embassy manages Washington’s interests in Iran.

“We expect that based on the US administration’s obligations… the US authorities will announce the results of their investigation regarding this Iranian national,” foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanaparast had said.

On June 29, Iranian television screened a video of a man claiming to be Amiri and saying that he had managed to escape from the hands of US intelligence agents in Virginia.

“I could be re-arrested at any time by US agents… I am not free and I’m not allowed to contact my family. If something happens and I do not return home alive, the US government will be responsible,” he said.

“I ask Iranian officials and organisations that defend human rights to raise pressure on the US government for my release and return to my country,” the man said, adding he has not “betrayed” Iran.

US officials have dismissed the allegations in the Iranian broadcast.

Amiri disappeared in June 2009 after arriving in Saudi Arabia for a pilgrimage. Iran accused US agents of abducting him with the help of Saudi intelligence services.

US television network ABC reported in March that Amiri, in his early 30s, had defected and was working with the Central Intelligence Agency.

The ABC report said that US agents described the defection as “an intelligence coup” in efforts to undermine Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.

Amiri’s disappearance “was part of a long-planned CIA operation to get him to defect,” ABC reported. US officials have rejected these allegations.

Iran has summoned at least twice the Swiss ambassador in Tehran over the matter and demanded the release and repatriation of Amiri along with 10 other Iranian nationals who it says have been “illegally detained” in the United States.

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Source: AFP