Iran pledged to provide help in bringing Bob Levinson household, but it has never ever followed via: FBI
Washington:
The United States on Monday for the 1st time accused Iran of direct involvement in the “probable death” of former FBI agent Bob Levinson, who vanished 13 years ago.
Releasing the discovering a month just before President-elect Joe Biden requires workplace, Donald Trump’s administration urged his successor to prioritize the release of at least 3 Americans in Iranian custody as portion of an anticipated resumption of diplomacy.
“The government of Iran pledged to provide assistance in bringing Bob Levinson home, but it has never followed through,” FBI Director Christopher Wray stated in a statement.
“The truth is that Iranian intelligence officers — with the approval of senior Iranian officials — were involved in Bob’s abduction and detention.”
The Treasury Department announced that it was imposing sanctions on two Iranians identified as intelligence agents, Mohammad Baseri and Ahmad Khazai, saying they “were involved in the abduction, detention and probable death of Mr. Levinson.”
The sanctions in themselves have been largely symbolic as Iranian agents have been unlikely to have bank accounts in the United States, despite the fact that the move will impede their international movements.
A senior US official, speaking to reporters on situation of anonymity, referred to as on the incoming Biden administration to address the query of missing Americans.
“There should be no agreement negotiated with Iran ever again that doesn’t free the Americans who are unjustly detained in that country,” the official stated, saying that Iran’s clerical regime “is 41 years old and has a 41-year-old record of hostage-taking.”
Trump has imposed sweeping sanctions on Iran, such as attempting to quit all of its oil exports, and exited an agreement negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama below which Iran substantially scaled back its nuclear system.
Upon sealing of the 2015 accord, Iran agreed to absolutely free 4 US citizens in its custody. The deal outraged members of Trump’s Republican Party for the reason that Obama also unfroze Iranian assets.
– Mysterious case –
Levinson, who disappeared when George W. Bush was president and would have turned 72 this year, was one particular of the most mysterious circumstances of Americans going missing in the arch-adversary.
The father of seven vanished in March 2007 in Kish, an island that has more lenient visa guidelines than the rest of Iran, and was stated to have been investigating cigarette counterfeiting.
But The Washington Post reported in 2013 that Levinson, who had retired from the FBI, was working for the CIA and had gone on a rogue mission aimed at gathering intelligence on Iran.
It stated at the time that the CIA paid $2.5 million to Levinson’s wife Christine, accepting duty for his disappearance.
Iranian officials have repeatedly stated they had no data on Levinson.
In 2010, a videotape emerged of a haggard, bearded Levinson wearing an orange jumpsuit of the sort worn by prisoners becoming detained indefinitely at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — raising speculation, later downplayed by US officials, that he was becoming held by extremists in Pakistan.
Trump in March told reporters that he had not accepted that Levinson was dead but noted that he had wellness issues.
– Rising rights issues –
The senior US official stated that involvement in Levinson’s disappearance was “well known at very high levels of the Iranian government” but declined to describe any proof or to provide facts on how he apparently died.
“I can’t get into their heads and figure out why they would do this,” the official stated, but added: “Logic would suggest the desire to seize and question someone who spent his career in law enforcement in the United States.”
The US announcement comes amid increasing concern about human rights in Iran, which on Saturday executed Ruhollah Zam, who ran a social media channel preferred through 2017 protests.
The opposition figure had been living in France but activists say he was abducted soon after traveling to Iraq.
Jake Sullivan, who will be Biden’s national safety advisor and was a essential negotiator of the nuclear deal, referred to as Zam’s killing “horrifying.”
“We will join our partners in calling out and standing up to Iran’s abuses,” he wrote on Twitter.
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