It is a locator map for Iran with its capital, Tehran.
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An Iranian-American journalist who as soon as labored for a U.S. government-funded broadcaster is believed to have been detained by Iran for months now, authorities mentioned Sunday, additional elevating the stakes as Tehran threatens to retaliate over an Israeli assault on the nation.
The imprisonment of Reza Valizadeh, acknowledged to The Related Press by the U.S. State Division, got here as Iran marked the forty fifth anniversary of the American Embassy takeover and hostage disaster on Sunday. It additionally adopted Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatening each Israel and the U.S. the day earlier than with “a crushing response” as long-range B-52 bombers reached the Middle East in an attempt to deter Tehran.
Valizadeh had labored for Radio Farda, an outlet beneath Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that is overseen by the U.S. Company for International Media. In February, he wrote on the social platform X that his members of the family had been detained in an effort to see him return to Iran.
In August, Valizadeh apparently posted two messages suggesting he had returned to Iran regardless of Radio Farda being seen by Iran’s theocracy as a hostile outlet.
“I arrived in Tehran on March 6, 2024. Before that, I had unfinished negotiations with the (Revolutionary Guard’s) intelligence department,” the message learn partly. “Eventually I came back to my country after 13 years without any security guarantee, even a verbal one.”
Valizadeh added the title of a person who he claimed belonged to Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. The AP couldn’t confirm if the individual labored for the ministry.
Rumors have been circulating for weeks that Valizadeh had been detained. The Human Rights Activists Information Company, which screens instances in Iran, mentioned that he had been detained on arrival to the nation earlier this 12 months, however later launched.
He was then rearrested and despatched to Evin jail, the place he now faces a case in Iran’s Revolutionary Court docket, which routinely holds closed-door hearings wherein defendants face secret proof, the company reported. Valizadeh had confronted arrest in 2007 as effectively, it mentioned.
The State Division informed the AP that it was “conscious of stories that this twin U.S.-Iranian citizen has been arrested in Iran” when asked about Valizadeh.
“We are working with our Swiss partners who serve as the protecting power for the United States in Iran to gather more information about this case,” the State Department said. “Iran routinely imprisons U.S. citizens and other countries’ citizens unjustly for political purposes. This practice is cruel and contrary to international law.”
Iran has not acknowledged detaining Valizadeh. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Voice of America, another U.S. government-funded media outlet overseen by the Agency for Global Media, first reported the State Department was acknowledging Valizadeh’s detention in Iran.
Since the 1979 U.S. Embassy crisis, which saw dozens of hostages released after 444 days in captivity, Iran has used prisoners with Western ties as bargaining chips in negotiations with the world. In September 2023, five Americans detained for years in Iran were freed in exchange for five Iranians in U.S. custody and for $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets to be released by South Korea.
Valizadeh is the first American known to be detained by Iran in the time since.
Meanwhile, Iranian state television aired footage Sunday of different cities across the country marking the anniversary of the embassy takeover.
Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of the Guard, also spoke in Tehran, where he repeated a pledge made the day before by Khamenei.
“The resistance front and Iran will equip itself with whatever necessary to confront and defeat the enemy,” he said, referring to the militant groups like Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah backed by Tehran.
In Tehran, thousands at the gate of the former U.S. Embassy chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” Some burned flags of the countries and effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In addition they carried pictures of killed high figures of Iran’s allied militant teams together with Lebanese Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and Palestinian Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar. The group within the state-organized rallies chanted they had been able to defend the Palestinians.
