The saga of the disappearance of Iranian nuclear researcher Shahram Amiri appears to have ended, with his arrival in Iran to a hero’s welcome. But reading between the lines of this news item from Iran’s state-run Kayhan newspaper, which calls this a ‘ fascinating but inevitably obscure story,’ it appears that the Tehran regime would rather not address open questions on whether he defected or was kidnapped.
The Washington Post reports today that the Iranian nuclear scientist, who claimed to have been abducted by the CIA before departing for his homeland Wednesday, was paid more than $5 million by the agency to provide intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program.
The news item from Kayhan says in part:
Iran has once again proven that the U.S. and Saudi intelligence services were behind Amiri’s abduction. It is safe to conclude that he was never a defector – as alleged by the U.S. As a researcher, he had a well-paid and prestigious job and was not a political person, and most importantly, he had a family in Iran – and said in his videos that he missed them terribly.
Likewise, knowing whether he sought refuge at the Pakistani mission on his own or was handed over by U.S. officials isn’t important. The important point is that he wants to return home – further proof that he has done nothing wrong while in captivity.
Amiri will soon be free to speak and may be able to shed some light on a fascinating but inevitably obscure story. His sudden appearance at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington has indeed injected new drama into a long-running mystery, since it serves as further proof that this was never an “intelligence coup” or a high-profile defection of an Iranian nuclear scientist with a presumed trove of secrets, as claimed by the U.S.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US