Tehran, Iran, August 24
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Numerous accounts are emerging in Iran over the arrest of one of the country’s nuclear negotiators, one contradicting the other.
The latest account is that the arrest is true and the arrestee is a dual citizen who, other than being active in economy in both the private and governmental sectors, was “the head of one of the key committees of the negotiation team and the representative of a financial organization on the team,” Nasim Online news agency reported August 24.
On August 22, the Foreign Ministry said “the arrest of one of the members of the Committee on the Implementation of the JCPOA is completely false,” but on the same day, Deputy Editor of Fars news Agency for Research Yasser Jebraili wrote on Telegram that the arrested man was named Abdolrasoul Dorri Esfahani, the banking head of the nuclear negotiation team who holds a second nationality of Great Britain. The journalist said Esfahani was arrested “on charges of espionage.”
Nasim Online added that the man was charged, among other things, of “receiving money from US and British institutes in return for important financial and economic information on the Islamic Republic.”
These come at a time when Esfahani spoke over the telephone with Bank Mardom website on August 24, calling the reports “laughable,” and adding, “Now that I am speaking to you I am at the Central Bank and am not arrested.”
In the meantime, Javad Karimi Qoddusi, a rightist MP, said the arrestee had been returned to Iran last week when he was accompanying Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to Turkey without having set foot on the Turkish soil.
Qoddusi’s remarks were refuted as “baseless claim, insubstantial, impertinent, sheer lie, and false statement,” on August 24 by Foreign Ministry spokesman Qassem Bahrami.
Esfahani had in June introduced himself as banking and financial member to Iran’s nuclear negotiation team.
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Numerous accounts are emerging in Iran over the arrest of one of the country’s nuclear negotiators, one contradicting the other.
The latest account is that the arrest is true and the arrestee is a dual citizen who, other than being active in economy in both the private and governmental sectors, was “the head of one of the key committees of the negotiation team and the representative of a financial organization on the team,” Nasim Online news agency reported August 24.
On August 22, the Foreign Ministry said “the arrest of one of the members of the Committee on the Implementation of the JCPOA is completely false,” but on the same day, Deputy Editor of Fars news Agency for Research Yasser Jebraili wrote on Telegram that the arrested man was named Abdolrasoul Dorri Esfahani, the banking head of the nuclear negotiation team who holds a second nationality of Great Britain. The journalist said Esfahani was arrested “on charges of espionage.”
Nasim Online added that the man was charged, among other things, of “receiving money from US and British institutes in return for important financial and economic information on the Islamic Republic.”
These come at a time when Esfahani spoke over the telephone with Bank Mardom website on August 24, calling the reports “laughable,” and adding, “Now that I am speaking to you I am at the Central Bank and am not arrested.”
In the meantime, Javad Karimi Qoddusi, a rightist MP, said the arrestee had been returned to Iran last week when he was accompanying Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to Turkey without having set foot on the Turkish soil.
Qoddusi’s remarks were refuted as “baseless claim, insubstantial, impertinent, sheer lie, and false statement,” on August 24 by Foreign Ministry spokesman Qassem Bahrami.
Esfahani had in June introduced himself as banking and financial member to Iran’s nuclear negotiation team.