Official Denies Reports U.S. Is Holding Iranian General

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March 08, 2007 3:14 PM

Contradicting news accounts that a former top Iranian military official was in the custody of the United States or one of its allies, a senior U.S. official told ABC News today the United States doesn't know where he is.

Mystery still surrounds the disappearance of former Iranian Deputy Defense Minister Ali Reza Asgari from Turkey last month. But there are more indications that he may be a goldmine of military information about Iran and possibly the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.

The Washington Post today quoted "a senior U.S. official" as saying Asgari was "cooperating with Western intelligence agencies."  ABC News' source doubted the credibility of the report, the first to quote a U.S. official about Asgari cooperating with Western intelligence.  "I have no earthly idea what this person is talking about...It is complete fiction."

The story of the missing Iranian general was first reported by the Saudi newspaper al Watan but has gained more interest as the sensitivity of the general's position became clearer.

Asgari was in charge of military purchases at the defense ministry as well as military relations between Iran and Syria, according to Ali Nourizadeh, a prominent Iranian journalist who reported that Asgari was in a northern European country where he is cooperating with U.S. and other Western intelligence agents. "He is considered a big fish," Nourizadeh told ABC News.

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If Asgari has defected, "it may represent the biggest intelligence coup for the U.S. and Israel in Hezbollah's history," Nicholas Noe of Mideastwire.com, an expert on Hezbollah, wrote on Syriacomment.com today. 

Asgari is believed to have been in charge of the Iranian Republican Guard in Lebanon and ties with Hezbollah from 1989 to 1990, which is why he is thought to have information about the group.

Furthermore, Nourizadeh says Asgari has information about Iran's operations in Iraq, including support and training of the Shiite militia al Mahdi Army and identities of Iranian agents.

The pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al Awsat quoted Israeli sources today as saying Asgari may have disappeared in January and not February as has been widely reported. Asgari felt bitter about being forced to resign from his post, said the sources.

Nourizadeh says Asgari was forced to resign in 2003 after exposing corruption at the ministry of defense. Officials involved in the scandal then turned against him and led to the resignation.

A year later, the government tried to win him back by offering him to work as a consultant, says Nourizadeh, who assures Asgari's military information about Iran are not outdated even though he did not hold an official position since 2003.

Asgari had disappeared mysteriously after arriving in Istanbul from Damascus on Feb.7, according to press reports. Initial reports speculated he may have been kidnapped because he failed to show up at a hotel that had been booked for him by two non-Turkish men.

Later, the possibility that Asgari may have defected started surfacing in news reports, particularly by Ali Nourizadeh in Asharq al Awsat and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.   

Iran's top police chief accused Western intelligence agencies of Asgari's disappearance.  Police Commander Brigadier General Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqaddam said that Asgari was probably kidnapped by agents of secret services from Western countries, according to the Islamic Republic's official news agency IRNA.

An Iranian official quoted by the Washington Post today speculated that Asgari may have been offered money by Israel to leave Iran. Israel denied any involvement in Asgari's disappearance.