AFP – The United States voiced increasing skepticism Tuesday over Iranian denials that a former FBI agent who disappeared during a visit to Iran last month is being held by authorities there.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack indicated Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice could raise the issue of Robert Levinson with Iranian officials if they attend an international conference on Iraq next week.
Levinson has not been seen since travelling to the Iranian resort island of Kish on private business in early March and McCormack said claims by Iran that it had no information on his whereabouts were not credible.
"Given the nature of the Iranian security apparatus, we find it hard to believe that — even though you don’t need a visa to arrive on Kish Island — that they don’t in some way monitor the comings and goings of individuals on Kish Island, including foreign nationals," he said.
The US has sent five requests for information about Levinson to Iran via Swiss intermediaries and this week asked two unnamed European governments and a third country for help in tracking him down, McCormack said.
The US and Iran have not had direct relations since 1980.
McCormack said the latest note sent to Tehran over the weekend included references to press reports that Levinson had been taken into custody by Iranian security agents, possibly as a hostage to exchange for five Iranians detained by US forces in Iraq.
The US official stopped short of confirming the reports, but said, "I can’t rule out for you that he is, in fact, being held by the Iranian government."
"We’d like to get to the bottom of it."
McCormack would also not rule out Rice raising the Levinson case personally with her Iranian counterpart if he accepts an invitation to attend the Iraq security conference in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh May 3-4.
"This could be something that would merit a US representative bringing up with the Iranian government should the opportunity present itself," he said.
"But, again, I’m not going to state that that would in fact be the case."
The administration of President George W. Bush long refused direct dealings with Iran, which it accuses of aiding terrorists in Iraq and around the Middle East and of trying to develop nuclear weapons.
But in a softening of that stance, Rice has authorized some contacts with Iranians to discuss efforts to stabilize Iran and has not ruled out speaking directly with the Iranians on the issue if they attend next week’s meeting.
