US says Iranian nuclear expert 'free to go' amid deal rumours

Published on Tuesday 13 July 2010 16:06

A "MISSING" Iranian nuclear scientist that Tehran claims was abducted by the United States is "free to go" home, Washington declared last night, amid speculation that a deal was struck to secure the release of three American hikers held in Tehran since last July.

In a remarkable twist, Shahram Amiri suddenly surfaced at the Iranian interests section of Pakistan's embassy in Washington, seeking refuge and an "immediate return" to Tehran.

The Pakistani mission has managed Iran's interests there since the US severed ties with the Islamic republic in April 1980.

Mr Amiri "has been in the US of his own free will. And he is, obviously, free to go", said Philip Crowley, a US State Department spokesman.

Dutifully, Amiri proclaimed the "disgraced" US government was the "loser" in the long-running stand-off over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"They (the Americans] wanted to quietly return me to Iran so that while denying the whole thing, they can put a cap on (my abduction]. But, in the end, they couldn't," Mr Amiri said.

The dramatic events seemingly supported Iran's claims Mr Amiri was abducted by US intelligence when he vanished during a pilgrimage to Mecca last June. But serious questions remain in a case of political skullduggery that involves the agents of Iran, the US and, possibly, those of Saudi Arabia.

If Mr Amiri was being held against his will in the US, how did he escape his CIA interrogators?

Equally, if he defected, as ABC, the US TV news network, reported in March, why would he now want to return home?

Washington has denied both kidnapping Mr Amiri and involvement in his defection. Saudi Arabia has also "deplored" Iranian accusations it played any role in his disappearance.

Dr Ali Ansari, an Iran expert at St Andrews University, while stressing he had no inside knowledge on the case, said it was possible that, having debriefed Mr Amiri for several months, the CIA had concluded "he didn't have much to say".

If so, US authorities may have decided to allow Amiri the pretence that he had been held against his will so that he would not face retribution on his return home - but to collude in his escape would mean a rare readiness by the CIA to face accusations of incompetence.

Yet there was speculation the US was prepared to accept this in return a significant pay-off. Tehran had previously hinted it would trade the three American hikers it has held since last July for a number of Iranians allegedly held in the US, including Amiri.

Before he vanished, Mr Amiri, 32, worked at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University, an institution closely connected to Iran's Revolutionary Guards. He has a wife and young daughter still in Tehran.

Adding to the confusion were three contradictory videos purportedly released in recent weeks.

The first surfaced on June 8 in which "Amiri" claimed he had been abducted by Saudi and US agents, tortured, forced to say he had defected and was being held against his will in Arizona.

How he managed to post the video on the internet in such constrained circumstances was never explained.

Within hours, a second video posted on YouTube showed a fuller-faced "Amiri" proclaiming he was safe and voluntarily in the US, pursuing a PhD.

In the third video, broadcast by Iranian state TV on 29 June, a man claiming to be the scientist, proclaimed: "I, Shahram Amiri, am a national of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a few minutes ago I escaped security agents in Virginia (which is home to the CIA].".