Iranian border police has set free Hall Talayan, a foreign woman earlier arrested on suspicion of spying. The woman was taken to Istanbul, where representatives of U.S. consulate contacted her.

Initial reports of the arrest emerged earlier. Fars said on Thursday, December 6, that a 55-year-old U.S. woman identified as Hall Talayan had been arrested trying to cross the border without a visa, and espionage equipment was found in her teeth. Later that day, however, Iran's Arabic language television al-Alam said the arrest report was false, Reuters reported.

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