Screengrab of a man identifying himself as Shahram Amiri, the Iranian nuclear scientist who disappeared in 2009, speaking at the Iranian interests section of Pakistan's embassy in Washington. Photograph: Ho/Reuters
An Iranian nuclear scientist who disappeared more than a year ago and mysteriously turned up in Washington is on his way back to Iran via a third country, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman has said.
"With the efforts of the Islamic Republic of Iran and effective co-operation of Pakistan's embassy in Washington, a few minutes ago Shahram Amiri left American soil and is heading back to Iran via a third country," the semi-official news agency ISNA quoted him as saying. He did not name the country.
Another Iranian official on Tuesday said Tehran could enlist Turkey's help to return Amiri to Iran. Ramin Mehmanparast said the foreign ministry would pursue the case through legal and diplomatic channels regarding the part the US government played in what Iran says was Amiri's abduction.
Iran had accused Saudi Arabia of handing Shahram Amiri to the US after he disappeared during the hajj pilgrimage a year ago. Amiri subsequently appeared in a series of internet videos, some of which said he was in hiding from US agents.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said: "Mr Amiri has been in the United States of his own free will and he is free to go. In fact he was scheduled to travel to Iran yesterday but was unable to make all of the necessary arrangements to reach Iran through a transit country."
Clinton called on Tehran to release three American hikers being held in Iran and to provide more information on the former FBI agent Robert Levinson who disappeared during a business trip to Iran.
Referring to Amiri, Clinton said: "He's free to go, he was free to come, these decisions are his alone to make."
Some analysts have suggested the scientist had been warned by Iranian security agents who interrupted a Skype call he was making to his wife that unless he returned home she would be tortured.
The US devotes considerable efforts to penetrating and monitoring Iran's nuclear programme, which the CIA says it believes could produce two nuclear bombs within two years. Iran insists the programme is entirely for peaceful energy purposes.
Amiri told Iranian radio from the Iranian interests section of Pakistan's embassy in Washington that for the past 14 months he had been under psychological pressure and was watched by armed individuals. "After my comments were released on the internet the Americans realised they were the losers of this game," he said.
Pakistan's foreign ministry said Amiri had been dropped off at the interests section on Monday. Iran and the US have had no diplomatic relations since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The US is represented in Tehran through the Swiss embassy.
Amiri, a university researcher who works for Iran's atomic energy organisation, reportedly defected to the US and was helping the CIA with information about the clandestine nuclear effort. His university, Malek Ashtar, is connected to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. But it is unclear how much he knows.
"Amiri is not a top scientist in Iran and thus not privy to highly sensitive information," said a Pakistani official. "Apparently his captors had concluded that he was of little use to them." Amiri was in good health and had not been tortured, the official said.
Several internet videos deepened the mystery of Amiri's disappearance. In the first, a grainy message released on 7 June by Iranian state TV, Amiri said he was kidnapped from Medina in a joint operation by teams from the CIA and Saudi intelligence.
In the second, he contradicted his earlier statements and said he was in the US of his own free will and rejected rumours about his defection. It was a better quality recording that showed Amiri well-dressed and apparently relaxed .
In a third video, seemingly hurriedly made, that aired on Iranian TV last month Amiri claimed to have escaped "US intelligence officers in Virginia" and said he could be arrested again at any moment
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010
