CAIRO — An award-winning Iranian nuclear scientist traveled
to Saudi Arabia earlier this year to perform a religious pilgrimage. He never
returned.
Shahram Amiri’s mysterious disappearance is turning into a
Middle Eastern whodunit involving nuclear secrets and political intrigue, with
a new round of accusations emerging this week and the U.S. government still
refusing to comment.
There are two big questions: Was Amiri spirited away by
Saudi-backed American covert agents? Or did the scientist seize the chance to
defect to the West, offering sensitive information in exchange for asylum?
Finger-pointing in Amiri’s case has heightened tensions
between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which are bitter rivals for regional dominance
and self-proclaimed guardians of Islam’s two main sects. Iran claimed earlier
this week that Saudi Arabia conspired with U.S. agents to abduct Amiri in June
and transfer him to the U.S., presumably for interrogations about Iran’s
controversial nuclear program.
“Based on existing pieces of evidence that we have at
our disposal, the Americans had a role in Mr. Amiri’s abduction,” Iranian
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference Tuesday, according
to a translation by the state-backed PressTV agency. “The Americans did
abduct him. Therefore, we expect the American government to return him.”
Mottaki added that because the disappearance occurred in
Saudi Arabia, the authorities there “must be held accountable in this
regard.”
On Wednesday, Ali Larijani, the Iranian speaker of
Parliament, went a step further by publicly accusing Washington of
“terrorist behavior” and claiming it was clear that Amiri’s
disappearance was “organized by Saudi conspirators.”
The Obama administration has kept mum on the case, with
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley telling reporters this week that the
U.S. is “aware of the Iranian claims” and saying he had no further
information.
Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally in the region, lashed out at
Tehran Wednesday. A popular Arabic-language newspaper reported that officials
“deplored” the accusations and insisted that Saudi forces already had
scoured Islamic holy cities in search of the missing scientist.
“After having been informed of his disappearance by the
Iranian delegation, Saudi authorities undertook an intensive search in Medina
as well as in all the hospitals in the region of Mecca,” Saudi foreign
ministry spokesman Osama Nugali told the Saudi-backed regional newspaper al-Sharq
al-Awsat in Wednesday’s edition.
Amiri traveled to Saudi Arabia on a religious pilgrimage in
late May or early June. He vanished in June, and there’s been no reliable word
on his whereabouts since. Amiri is said to be in his 30s, with a wife and other
relatives still in Iran, though McClatchy Newspapers couldn’t independently
verify that information.
Iranian news agencies have described Amiri as a physicist
who conducts research for the country’s Atomic Energy Organization and the
Malek-e-Ashtar University of Technology, which is affiliated with the Iranian
defense ministry. Reports say Amiri won a national award for his service to
Tehran’s nuclear program. It’s unclear what level of security clearance Amiri
held or how important he is to the Iranian program. Iran waited months before
even acknowledging that Amiri was a nuclear scientist.
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With so little solid information available in Amiri’s case,
speculation is rampant in intelligence and diplomatic circles, with rumors
ranging from the abduction or defection scenarios to the possibility of Israeli
agents assassinating Amiri as part of what’s been called a shadowy
“decapitation program” allegedly targeting Iran’s top nuclear
scientists.
Mohamed al-Saied Idriss, an Iran specialist at the
Cairo-based al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said all the
rumors and accusations could’ve been cleared up months ago if Saudi Arabia and
Iran had even nominally decent relations. Instead, the matter has festered and
could complicate future nuclear negotiations with Tehran.
“It’s Iran’s mistake that he left the country — they
should’ve known he could be subject to kidnapping or he could be
compromised,” Idriss said. “And there’s been talk that the Americans
interrogated him and managed to get information that helped them in discovering
the nuclear facility at Qom.”
Four months after Amiri’s disappearance, Western
intelligence agencies disclosed the existence of a previously unannounced
Iranian nuclear facility outside the city of Qom, fueling speculation that
Amiri was in the U.S. sharing nuclear secrets. There’s been no confirmation,
however, that Amiri had anything to do with the discovery of the underground
facility at Qom, and U.S. intelligence agencies reportedly had suspected such a
site near Qom for two or three years.
The U.S. and its allies fear Iran is striving to attain a
nuclear weapons capability, though the Iranian leadership maintains it seeks
nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes such as generating electricity.
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
