THE TELEGRAPH: An Iranian nuclear scientist claimed by Tehran to have been abducted by the United States has sought refuge in the Pakistan embassy in Washington, state television said on Tuesday.
In a dramatic development in a long-running mystery, Shahram Amiri was said to be demanding to be allowed to return home.
Mr Amiri disappeared last year while on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Iran claimed he had been seized by the Saudi intelligence services working in collaboration with the CIA.
Washington said such claims were "ridiculous" but shed no light on what happened to him. The American television channel ABC reported it had been told by official sources that he had defected voluntarily and was providing information to the US authorities.
Intelligence websites said he had been "turned" while on trips to Frankfurt and Vienna, and had provided detailed information on the secret uranium enrichment plant the Iranians were discovered to be building near the holy city of Qom.
Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations since the Islamic revolution in 1979, and national interests are looked after by the Pakistan embassy in Washington and the Swiss embassy in Tehran respectively.
Mehr, an Iranian news agency, reported on Tuesday morning that Mr Amiri, a nuclear researcher at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University who also worked for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, "went to Iran's interest section and asked for a quick return to Tehran". >>> Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
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