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.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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