Iran nuclear negotiator cleared of spying charges

Abdolrasoul Dorri Esfahani, part of the team that secured nuke accord, was arrested in August

By AFP 25 October 2016, 3:36 pm 0 Edit

Delegates sit around a table prior to a bilateral meeting as part of the closed-door nuclear talks with Iran at a hotel in Vienna, Austria. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak, File)

TEHRAN — Iran‘s intelligence minister said Tuesday that a British-Iranian member of its nuclear negotiating team had been cleared of spying allegations, state media reported.

Abdolrasoul Dorri Esfahani, part of the team that secured a nuclear accord with world powers last year, was arrested in August and described by a judiciary spokesman as an “infiltrating spy.”

But in a written note to parliament, Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said the case had been dropped, the official IRNA news agency reported.

“According to the views of the intelligence ministry’s experts, Mr Dorri Esfahani was not engaged in spying,” the note said, according to deputy speaker Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 4, 2014 (photo credit: AP/Vahid Salemi)

Esfahani’s role in the nuclear negotiations has not been clarified.

Local media reported in August that he was not an official member of the team and had only been brought in as an expert on specific economic questions.

However, conservative-linked weekly Ramze Obour claimed he “bypassed the negotiating team and gave invaluable information to the United States.”

Conservatives say Iran has faced “infiltration” by Westerners since the nuclear deal and several dual nationals have been detained on espionage charges.

Last week, high-profile Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi, his 80-year-old father and four other dual-nationals were all given 10-year sentences for “conspiring” with the United States.