{"id":91151,"date":"2020-12-15T07:40:54","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T12:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=91151"},"modified":"2020-12-15T07:40:54","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T12:40:54","slug":"auto-draft-373","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2020\/12\/15\/auto-draft-373\/","title":{"rendered":"US Formally Blames Iran for Abduction of American in 2007"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"VOA \u2014 The United States has sanctioned two Iranian nationals for their suspected involvement in the abduction and \u201cprobable death\u201d of former FBI agent Robert Levinson on Iran\u2019s Kish Island in March 2007.<\/p>\n

It is the first time the U.S. has formally blamed Iran for the disappearance of the retired FBI agent. There was no immediate reaction from Tehran.<\/p>\n

The two Iranians were identified as Mohammad Baseri and Ahmad Khazai, both of whom the Treasury Department said are \u201chigh-ranking\u201d officials with Iran\u2019s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and were involved in Levinson\u2019s abduction.<\/p>\n

Levinson disappeared March 9, 2007, while visiting Kish Island as a private investigator. He had retired from a 22-year career with the FBI nine years earlier. In 2013, several U.S. news outlets reported that Levinson had been part of a rogue CIA intelligence mission, a claim that U.S. authorities have not confirmed.<\/p>\n

In 2010, the Levinson family received a \u201cproof of life\u201d video of Levinson. In 2011, they received photos showing a disheveled Levinson.<\/p>\n

According to The Associated Press, the U.S. determined Levinson was dead nine months ago. <\/p>\n

The White House said the move makes clear the Trump administration will hold accountable those who are involved in \u201chostage-taking as a tool of \u2018diplomacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo family should ever endure the pain the Levinson family has for nearly 14 years,\u201d read a statement from the White House press secretary. \u201cIran is responsible and can end this nightmare by answering questions for which only they hold the answers. Any future talks with Iran must include resolution to this case. We stand by the Levinson family, and we will never cease in our efforts to bring justice for Bob and his family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOA \u2014 The United States has sanctioned two Iranian nationals for their suspected involvement in the abduction and \u201cprobable death\u201d of former FBI agent Robert Levinson on Iran\u2019s Kish Island in March 2007. It is the first time the U.S. has formally blamed Iran for the disappearance of the retired FBI agent. There was no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latests"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91151"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91154,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91151\/revisions\/91154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}