Rooyesh

An Iranian diplomat freed two months after being abducted in Iraq accused the CIA of torturing him during his detention, state television reported Saturday. The United States immediately denied any involvement in the Iranian’s disappearance or release.Jalal Sharafi, who was freed on Tuesday, said the CIA questioned him about Iran’s relations with Iraq and assistance to various Iraqi groups, according to state television.“Once they heard my response that Iran merely has official relations with the Iraqi government and officials, they intensified tortures and tortured me through different methods days and nights,” he said.

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It is difficult to meet Ayatollah Misbah Yazdi the symbol for conservatives in Qom and Iran. He has never allowed a journalist an interview and reportedly considers all journalists to be ‘spies’. The alternative solution was to interview his prominent disciple, Hujjat al Islam Muhsin Gharfian. Gharfian who is not fluent in spoken English can still understand it well. He also understands some Arabic but can only speak a basic level of the language. Gharfian does not adopt the hardliner positions that can be expected from a fiqh [Islamic jurisprudence] and fatwa student tutored by Misbah Yazdi. Gharfian complained about the manner in which he was being represented and said that there were websites that posted thoughts and ideas that were falsely and inaccurately attributed to him. Speaking to Asharq al Awsat from his office in Qom, he said that he had voted for Hashemi Rafsanjani in last December’s Assembly of Experts’ election rather than vote for his mentor, Misbah Yazdi.

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Iranian and American officials are more accustomed to exchanging barbs through the media than engaging in meaningful dialogue. So it was no small feat when Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari got representatives from both countries talking face to face at a conference in Baghdad last month. Zebari, 53, is equal parts charm and muscle, at ease hobnobbing with global leaders in the Swiss ski resort of Davos or navigating the rough-neck politics in Iraq. And he rarely loses his good humor. After mortars landed nearby during the Baghdad conference last month, Zebari told reporters, “I thought, ‘This is bad targeting.’ I was surprised there weren’t more.”When the 15 British sailors were detained by Iran last month, Zebari was one of the few officials who had good access to both sides.

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Already facing U.N. sanctions and speculation about a U.S. attack over its nuclear program, Iran’s capture of 15 British sailors and marines on March 23 had the makings of a new Middle East crisis that could spin dangerously out of control. So, Tehran’s decision to free the captives in what President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called a “gift to the British people” was a notable victory for Iranian pragmatists over hard-liners — one that could even build momentum within Tehran’s power structure and in Western capitals for a diplomatic solution to the standoff over Iran’s uranium-enrichment program.

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The Bush administration said Thursday that the release of 15 British sailors and marines held by Iran for two weeks created no new openings in dealing with Tehran, and it urged American allies to return their attention to enforcing new sanctions against Iran. In public statements and background interviews, White House and State Department officials said that they saw no indications that the release indicated a change of attitude by Iran’s leadership. Neither did they see any more willingness to discuss suspension of its enrichment of uranium — the requirement that President Bush has said Iran must meet before he is willing to accept talks with the country.

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The US offered to take military action on behalf of the 15 British sailors and marines held by Iran, including buzzing Iranian Revolutionary Guard positions with warplanes, the Guardian has learned. In the first few days after the captives were seized and British diplomats were getting no news from Tehran on their whereabouts, Pentagon officials asked their British counterparts: what do you want us to do? They offered a series of military options, a list which remains top secret given the mounting risk of war between the US and Iran. But one of the options was for US combat aircraft to mount aggressive patrols over Iranian Revolutionary Guard bases in Iran, to underline the seriousness of the situation.

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A Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News. The group, called Jundullah, is made up of members of the Baluchi tribe and operates out of the Baluchistan province in Pakistan, just across the border from Iran.  It has taken responsibility for the deaths and kidnappings of more than a dozen Iranian soldiers and officials. U.S. officials say the U.S. relationship with Jundullah is arranged so that the U.S. provides no funding to the group, which would require an official presidential order or “finding” as well as congressional oversight. Tribal sources tell ABC News that money for Jundullah is funneled to its youthful leader, Abd el Malik Regi, through Iranian exiles who have connections with European and Gulf states.

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