U.N. official presses Iran on sanctions and hikers over dinner

Posted By Colum Lynch Saturday, May 8, 2010 - 8:15 AM Share

A senior U.S. diplomat urged Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki at a diplomatic dinner Thursday night to release three American hikers and a FBI agent who are in Iranian custody.

Alejandro Wolff, the second-highest ranking official at the U.S. mission to the United Nations, presented the Iranian diplomat with letters from the families of the four American and asked Iranian to release them.

The unusual exchange came at a dinner Mottaki hosted with representatives of the 15 nations on the U.N. Security Council. Mottaki used the occasion to counter a U.S. and European push for sanctions against Iran for failing to abide by U.N. resolution requiring Tehran cease its enrichment of uranium.

The families of the three American hikers -- Shane M. Bauer, Joshua F. Fattal, and Sarah E. Shroud -- have maintained that they mistakenly entered Iranian territory during a hiking expedition in Kurdistan last summer. Robert Levinson, a former F.B.I agent, disappeared while conducting business in Iran three years ago.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters this week that the fate of the hikers would have to be resolved by Iranian judicial authorities, but that he personally hoped they would be freed. But he has shown no sympathy for Levinson.

The United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran, but Wolff was allowed to attend the dinner. A U.S. official said that Wolff pressed Mottaki at the dinner to abide by "Iran's international obligation" to halt its enrichment of uranium. Wolff also informer Mottaki that a recent Iranian initiative to swap Iran's low enriched uranium for more purified uranium for a medical research reactor in Tehran was "flawed and fell way short" of what is required of Iran. "There was nothing new that moved the ball forward," the official said.

"Iran's Foreign Minister invited U.N. Security Council to dinner, served leftovers, unfortunately he said nothing new," State Department spokesman tweeted today. "We continue to work on a sanctions resolution that will show Iran there are consequences for non-compliance."

EXPLORE:DIPLOMACY, IRAN, NUKES, UNITED NATIONS

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JAYDEE001

5:10 PM ET

May 17, 2010

Good luck with that approach

Was the purpose of attending the diplomatic dinner to ask for favorable consideration for these hostages and missing persons, or to threaten Iran again with increased sanctions over its nuclear program?

According to news reports, Levinson was a former DEA and FBI agent, had started a career as a private investigator after leaving the Bureau, and was in the Iranian free-trade zone on the island of Kish investigating cigarette smuggling for a private client. But he also met with an American convert to Islam implicated in the murder of an Iranian dissident - and former aide to the Shah - while on Kish. Plenty there to arouse suspicion about his motives and mission. There is always the possibility that he might have run afoul of smugglers who did not appreciate his nosing around in their business. On the other hand, his professional background and a meeting with an admitted assassin in Iranian territory might have gotten him in deep trouble with Iranian authorities. If he was going there without a visa and without clearance from the government of Iran he was foolish in the extreme.

Given the history of Us/Iranian relations, it would seem wise for Americans who travel in that part of the world to be aware of the risks of travel in and around Iran, and if they do set foot on Iranian soil, accept the consequences for themselves and their family. 'Hiking' along the Iranian border is really follishness.