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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Vanished Iranian nuclear scientist stokes tensions |
| 2009-12-15 |
| A murky tale of nuclear secrets, kidnapping, defections and political skulduggery is stoking tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia and fuelling decades-old mistrust and hostility between Tehran and Washington. The lead character is a little-known Iranian nuclear scientist, Shahram Amiri, who vanished mysteriously during a pilgrimage to Mecca in June. Iran claimed this week that he was one of 11 Iranians being held "illegally" by the United States or other countries at Washington's behest while it seeks their extradition. According to some reports, Iran hopes to secure their return in exchange for three US hikers detained in a notorious Tehran prison since they strayed over the country's northern border with Iraq in July. The row comes at a delicate time. International attempts to defuse the Iranian nuclear crisis are faltering over Tehran's reluctance to accept a confidence-building measure it had tentatively agreed to in October. Decision-making in Tehran has been seemingly paralysed by unprecedented rifts in the Iranian leadership, spawned by president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June. It took Tehran three months to break the news of Mr Amiri's disappearance. Embarrassed by Arab and Iranian media speculation that a scientist working on its disputed nuclear programme had defected with damaging information, Tehran at the time described Mr Amiri only as a "pilgrim" or an "Iranian citizen". That all changed this week when Tehran acknowledged for the first time that Mr Amiri was a nuclear scientist, and went on the attack. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |