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Iranian Secrets Leak Out Abroad
A former Iranian deputy defense minister who vanished in Turkey last month has appeared in the West willing to provide information on Iran and its ties to Hezbollah, Washington Post reported Thursday. Iranian authorities would not comment the news but said the defected general “had been out of the loop for four or five years” now and, therefore, has no up-to-date information on Iran’s military capabilities and nuclear program.
Former Iranian Deputy Defense Minister Ali Rez Asgari is willingly cooperating with Israeli and U.S. intelligence, providing information on Hezbollah and Iran’s ties to the organization, according to the source of Washington Post. In return, Mr. Asgari has been promised asylum in the United States. An Israeli newspaper reports that the former official is currently in Northern Europe.
Mr. Asgari, 63, disappeared on February 7 during a visit to Istanbul. Iran officials suggested that he may have been kidnapped by Israel’s Mossad or the American CIA. Teheran sent a delegation to Turkey to investigate the disappearance. A U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, denied that report and suggested that Mr. Asgari’s disappearance was voluntary and orchestrated by the Israelis.
Former Mossad director Danny Yatom is sure that Mr. Asgari defected to the West. “He is very high-caliber,” Yatom said. “He held a very, very senior position for many long years in Lebanon.”
Alis Rez Asgari served in the Iranian government until 2005. His background suggests that he would have deep knowledge of Iran’s ties to Hezbollah and Lebanon. Israeli intelligence agencies said Mr. Asgari had been the one who helped build and found Hezbollah in the 1980s.
Teheran has not as yet given any official comment on Mr. Asgari’s possible defection. However, Iranian officials have mentioned off the record that the former deputy defense minister has no up-to-date information about Iran’s military capabilities. “He has been out of the loop for four or five years now,” an anonymous Iranian official said.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 09, 2007
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