Renewed arrests in Iran in connection with US think tanks

Jul 25, 2007, 12:15 GMT

Tehran - There have been renewed arrests in connection with United States think-tank operations in Iran, the country's intelligence service head said Wednesday.

Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejeie told Fars news agency that 'local elements' connected to the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars and the George Soros' Open Society Institute had been arrested but he refused to give further details until the end of investigations.

Tehran has already detained two members of the two US think tanks - Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh - on charges of espionage.

The two said in an interview last week with state television IRIB that US think tanks aimed to weaken the Iranian regime and Islamic world.

Their remarks were interpreted by Iranian officials as confessions to espionage charges.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini on Sunday claimed that the confessions on IRIB by the US-Iranian scholars indicated that the US was following a 'long-term plan and widespread efforts with the aim of toppling the Islamic system in Iran.'

Tehran accuses Washington of putting political, cultural and economic pressure on Iran and supporting Iranian opposition groups to topple the Islamic regime through what it calls a 'velvet revolution.'

Despite the tensions Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Wednesday did not rule out high-level talks with the US following Tuesday's meeting of the two states' ambassadors in Baghdad to evaluate the security crisis in Iraq.

Mottaki told Fars that high-level talks could be considered if an official request was made by Washington.

He did not say whether he would in that case also be ready to meet his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice.

Mottaki further rejected US charges that Iran was supporting Iraqi insurgents and said such accusations were just aimed at covering US political failures in Iraq.