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.
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.