Missing Iranian general, Ali Reza Asgari, may have defected to the United States and requested asylum there, according to a report in the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper Tuesday.
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| Iran says West may have seized missing ex-official / Reuters |
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Former Defense Ministry official who went missing in Turkey may have been kidnapped by Western intelligence because of his background, Iran's police chief says |
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Asgari, a former Iranian Defense Ministry official, went missing in Turkey in early February, shortly after checking into his hotel in Istanbul.
A source at the Iranian consulate in Istanbul said that Asgari arrived in Istanbul and went directly to his hotel, disappearing a few hours later.
“Iran
will take all the necessary steps to find a solution to the issue,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
A website linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards has already hinted at the possibility that Asgari was kidnapped by American intelligence, in light of his knowledge of Iranian nuclear secrets, as well as Iranian military equipment.
"It is possible that former deputy defense minister Asgari was kidnapped by Western intelligence services because of his Defense Ministry background," Police chief Ismail Ahmadi-Moghaddam was quoted by ILNA news agency as saying.
According to reports by the British Daily Telegraph, the Mossad may have been involved in Asgari’s disappearance, due to his possible possession of information regarding the fate of missing Israeli navigator Ron Arad.
Iran officially announced on Monday that it had requested Turkey’s help in investigating the issue.
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