Last update - 00:00 19/03/2007
Wives blame Israel, Turkey for Iranian official's disappearance
By Reuters
The wives of an Iranian ex-deputy defense minister who disappeared in Turkey last month blamed Turkey for his disappearance, saying Turkish security forces handed the official over to Israel, media reported.
Iran's police chief has suggested that Ali Reza Asgari, who disappeared after checking into an Istanbul hotel on February 7, was kidnapped by Western intelligence. Israel and the United States have denied any involvement in his disappearance.
"We only know that Turkish security forces have handed him over to Israel," Asgari's wife Ziba Ahmadi was quoted as saying on Monday by the ILNA news agency.
"It was America and Israel who did it but ... [the] Turkish government is responsible and they should inform us about his situation as soon as possible," Ahmadi said while she and other family members gathered outside Turkey's embassy in Tehran. Asgari's other wife Zahra Abdollahpour was also outside the embassy.
Approximately 10 of Asgari's relatives, including the two wives, gathered outside the embassy on Monday but complained they were not able to see the ambassador despite an earlier promise.
Turkish embassy officials were not available for comment.
Asgari's relatives have also previously the United States and Israel of kidnapping him.
"They say he [the ambassador] is not in Iran," Ahmadi said. "They have not given us any news about his situation."
"We, Ali Asgari's family and relatives, will come here again and disturb the calmness of the Turkish embassy until we get a response," she said.
Under Islamic law it is permitted for a man to have more than one wife, although polygamy is relatively rare in Iran.
Turkish newspapers have reported Asgari had information on Iran's nuclear program, which Western powers suspect is aimed to build atom bombs. Iran insists its plans are peaceful.
Turkish, Arabic and Israeli media have suggested Asgari has defected to the West, but Ahmadi has earlier dismissed this as rumors "spread by Iran's enemies."
A former official with Israel's foreign spy service Mossad has said Asgari had been a commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the main sponsor of Shi'ite guerrilla group Hezbollah.
The group is one of Israel's toughest regional enemies and is listed on the U.S. State Department's terrorist watch list.