U.S. State Department possesses no information on spy arrest in Iran

PanARMENIAN.Net - The U.S. administration possesses no official information on detainment of an American citizen in Iran on the charges of spying.

“We have no information to corroborate this alleged incident. In addition to checking our own records, we have contacted Armenian authorities, and through our Swiss protecting power, the Iranian Government concerning these reports,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told a daily press briefing.

“Neither Iran nor Armenia reports having any record of a U.S. citizen crossing or attempting to cross the Iran-Armenia border as indicated in media accounts,” he said.

Commenting on media reports about the illegal crossing of the Armenian-Iranian border by U.S. citizen Hal Talaian, spokesperson for the RA National Security Service (NSS) Artsvin Baghramyan said that a person under such name has neither entered, nor, consequently, left Armenia.

According to media reports, Iranian authorities have arrested a 55-year-old American woman - reportedly with a microphone hidden in her teeth.

The state-owned newspaper IRAN said the woman, identified in Farsi as Hal Talaian, had "spying equipment or a microphone" concealed in her teeth when customs authorities detained her in the border town of Nordouz, 370 miles northwest of the capital, Tehran. The report said she arrived in Iran from neighboring Armenia without a visa. The paper did not say when she was detained.

But Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying the woman was taken into custody "about one week ago." Fars also said she told Iranian border guards that her life would be in danger if they sent her back to Armenia.

Meanwhile Iranian state television said that authorities did not arrest an American woman who tried to enter the country from Armenia, casting doubt on earlier media reports.

The state-run Arabic-language Al Alam TV quoted an informed source denying reports of her arrest and saying the woman was turned around at the border crossing because she did not have a visa. The report did not identify the source.