THE TELEGRAPH: A leading Iranian nuclear scientist has defected to the United States and is working with the CIA.
Shahram Amiri, a nuclear physicist in his early thirties, disappeared in June 2009 after arriving in Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage.
An ABC report said that US intelligence agents had described the defection as "an intelligence coup" in US efforts to undermine Iran's nuclear program.
Mr Amiri's disappearance "was part of a long-planned CIA operation to get him to defect," the ABC reported, citing unnamed people briefed on the operation by US intelligence officials.
On October 7, Manouchehr Mottaki, the Iranian foreign minister, charged that there was US involvement in Mr Amiri's disappearance.
"We have obtained documents that show US interference in the disappearance of Shahram Amiri in Saudi Arabia," Mr Mottaki was quoted as saying by Iran's Fars news agency.
He suggested that Mr Amiri had been arrested in Saudi Arabia and the United States was involved.
"We consider Saudi Arabia responsible for the situation of Shahram Amiri and we consider Americans to have been involved in his arrest," Mr Mottaki was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. >>> | Wednesday, March 31, 2010
