Tehran protests US arrests of Iranians linked to bombing of American base
January attack in Jordan killed three American troops; ‘We consider these arrests in violation of international law,’ says Iranian foreign ministry
Iran has summoned the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, who represents American interests in the country, and a senior Italian diplomat, over the arrest by the US of two Iranian nationals this week, Iranian media reported on Saturday.
“We consider these arrests in violation of international law,” Iranian media quoted the foreign ministry as saying, adding that the Swiss ambassador and the Italian charge d’affaires were asked to pass on Iran’s protest.
US prosecutors charged the two men on Monday with illegally exporting sensitive technology to Iran that they said was used in a January drone attack in Jordan that killed three US service members.
Federal prosecutors in Boston charged Mohammad Abedini, the co-founder of an Iranian-based company, and Mahdi Sadeghi, an employee of Massachusetts-based semiconductor manufacturer Analog Devices ADI.O, with conspiring to violate US export laws.
Prosecutors also charged Abedini, also known as Mohammad Abedininajafabadi, with providing material support to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that resulted in death. The US designates the Revolutionary Guards a foreign terrorist organization.
Abedini, a resident of both Switzerland and Iran, was arrested in Milan, Italy, at the request of the US government, which will seek his extradition. Sadeghi, an Iranian-born naturalized American citizen living in Natick, Massachusetts, was also arrested.
“We often cite hypothetical risk when we talk about the dangers of American technologies getting into dangerous hands,” US Attorney Joshua Levy in Massachusetts said. “Unfortunately, in this situation, we are not speculating.”
At a press conference in Boston, Levy said the FBI had been able to trace sophisticated navigation equipment used in the drone to Abedini’s Iranian company, SDRA, which manufactured the navigation system.
Levy said Abedini had used a company in Switzerland as a front to procure American technologies from Sadeghi’s employer including accelerometers and gyroscopes that were then sent to Iran.
During a brief court hearing, Sadeghi was ordered detained pending a further hearing after a prosecutor called him a flight risk. His court-appointed lawyer did not respond to request for comment. A lawyer for Abedini could not be identified.
Court papers do not identify Sadeghi’s employer by name, but Analog Devices in a statement confirmed he worked for the company.
Analog Devices said it was cooperating with law enforcement and was “committed to preventing unauthorized access to and misuse of our products and technology.”
The January 28 drone attack on a US outpost in Jordan called Tower 22, near the Syrian border, was the first deadly strike against American forces since the Israel-Hamas war erupted after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught in southern Israel.
The three Army Reserve soldiers killed in the attack were all from Georgia. They were Sergeant William Jerome Rivers, Specialist Kennedy Ladon Sanders, and Specialist Breonna Alexsondria Moffett.
The White House later said the attack was facilitated by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella organization of hardline Iran-backed militant groups. Iran has denied involvement in the attack.
Following the attack, the US launched a huge counterstrike against 85 sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Iranian-backed militia and bolstered Tower 22’s defenses.
The Times of Israel Community.