(New York Times) Thomas Erdbrink - Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American scholar and consultant who has advocated improved relations between the U.S. and Iran, has been arrested in Tehran. Intelligence officers came to his mother's house and took him to Evin Prison in Tehran around Oct. 15. Namazi is at least the fourth American of Iranian descent to be incarcerated by the Iranian authorities and the first since the July nuclear agreement was completed. The political atmosphere in Iran is again taking a turn toward the strident anti-Americanism that prevailed before the talks. The arrest coincided with increasingly shrill accusations by some members of Iran's Parliament that one of the other imprisoned Iranian-Americans, Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post's Tehran correspondent, heads a network of spies. Iranian authorities have also imprisoned Saeed Abedini, a Christian pastor, and Amir Hekmati, a Marine veteran. "It's not a good sign for those who want to open Iran to the West and the United States," said Alireza Nader, an Iran specialist at the RAND Corporation.
2015-10-30 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive