TEHRAN, Iran - Iran officially confirmed Sunday that it is holding an
Iranian-American peace activist, the fourth dual citizen the country has
detained in recent months.
In this undated photo released by the Center for Citizen
Peacebuilding, Ali Shakeri of Lake Forest, Calif., is shown. Iran
confirmed Friday, June 8, 2007, that it is holding the Iranian-American
peace activist, the fourth dual citizen it has detained in recent months,
according to the Iranian Student News Agency. [AP]
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Mohammad Ali Hosseini, the spokesman for
Iran's foreign ministry, confirmed at his weekly news briefing that
Iranian-American Ali Shakeri had been detained.
On Friday, the semi-official ISNA news agency had first reported that Shakeri
of Lake Forest, Calif., was being held and investigated by the security
department of the Tehran prosecutor's office.
At the briefing, Hosseini also reiterated that Iran has no information about
a former FBI agent, Robert Levinson, who the United States says has been missing
since March after traveling to an Iranian resort island on private business.
"In a meeting with the Swiss ambassador, we reminded them that we have not
found any information about him (Levinson)," Hosseini said when asked about the
former FBI agent.
The Swiss Embassy handles US interests in Iran because the United States and
Iran do not have formal diplomatic ties.
At his briefing, Hosseini also accused the United States of using scientific
and research cooperation as a guise to work against Iran. It was not clear what
he referred to, but many academics have criticized Iran for arresting scholars.
The US State Department has said Shakeri, a founding board member of the
University of California, Irvine, Center for Citizen Peacebuilding was supposed
to have left Iran for Europe on May 13 but never arrived.
Iranian officials previously have confirmed the detentions of three other
Iranian-Americans: scholar Haleh Esfandiari, who is the director of the Middle
East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; Kian
Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant with George Soros' Open Society
Institute; and journalist Parnaz Azima, who works for US funded-Radio Farda.
All three have been accused of endangering Iran's national security and of
espionage, according to a judiciary spokesman.
It is not known if Shakeri has been accused of specific wrongdoing.
All were in Iran visiting family members or engaged in professional work,
according to the US State Department and their relatives and employers.
President Bush has demanded that Iran "immediately and unconditionally"
release those held, and has denied that they were spying for the US.
Family, colleagues and employers also have denied the allegations.
Bush's remarks drew sharp criticism from Iranian officials. Earlier this
week, Iran accused Bush of interfering in the country's internal affairs.
Iran in recent weeks has escalated accusations against the US, saying it has
uncovered spy rings organized by the US and its Western
allies.