Iran blames US for scientist’s disappearance

The disappearance of an Iranian nuclear scientist on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June is raising questions about whether he defected and gave the West information on Iran’s nuclear programme.

The disappearance of an Iranian nuclear scientist on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June is raising questions about whether he defected and gave the West information on Iran’s nuclear programme.

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Iran’s foreign minister on Wednesday accused the US of involvement in the disappearance of Shahram Amiri, who reportedly worked at a university linked to the elite Revolutionary Guard military corps.

In a sign of the sensitivities surrounding Amiri, Iranian officials have not even publicly identified Amiri as a nuclear scientist, referring to him only as an Iranian citizen. Amiri’s wife has said he was researching medical uses of nuclear technology at a university and was not involved in the broader nuclear programme.

Amiri vanished several months before the September revelation of a uranium enrichment facility near Qom, which the US and its allies accuse Iran of building secretly.