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Ali Shakeri, a founding board member of the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at the University of California, was arrested in May at a Tehran airport as he was about to leave Iran. He was then transferred to Evin prison, rights groups say.

Iran confirmed his detention in June and said he was being held on security-related charges. Three other dual nationals were also detained but have since been freed on bail. Two of them have now left the country.

Iran’s ISNA news agency said Shakeri was released on bail of about $110,000 on Monday night.

“Now he is not allowed to leave the country. To remove the ban, he needs the special permission of the judge of his case,” ISNA said.

Political analysts have seen the U.S.-Iranians’ detention as part of a broader crackdown on dissent while Tehran is under Western pressure over its nuclear programme, which Washington sees as a bid to acquire nuclear bombs. Iran denies that is so.

Analysts have also linked the dual nationals’ arrests to the detention by U.S. forces in Iraq of five Iranians who Washington says were supporting insurgents. Tehran says the men are diplomats and should be freed. It rejects any connection with the arrests in Iran.

Some analysts have said the releases may signal Tehran’s desire not to escalate the standoff with the United States, which has said it wants a diplomatic solution to the atomic row but has refused to rule out a military option if that fails.

Shakeri’s release coincides with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to the United Nations in New York. One Western diplomat suggested the latest move might be a way to defuse criticism of the president and Iran during his trip.

New York-based group Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Saturday that Shakeri, 59, had been held in solitary confinement at Evin for more than four months without charge.

Source: Reuters

“It is definitely a source of pride that he is in New York and is smiling to the world and invites other countries into friendship,” said Ali-Mohammad a 37-year-old mechanic in a lower middle class area in eastern Tehran.

But he doubted the world would listen to the president’s message because of its “jealousy” about Iran’s “progress” in its nuclear, car, and hydrocarbons industries.

However, he was critical of the government for caring for the poor “in words but not in practice”.

Marzieh, a 55-year-old retired teacher in middle-class central Tehran, was also happy about the president’s visit, hoping it could help ease Iran’s tensions with the west over its nuclear programme. “My 19-year-old son is a soldier,” she said. “He feels excited about a war and fighting, but he doesn’t understand. Do we really want to see our youth dying in another war? No!”

Ebrahim, a 60-year-old bank employee, hoped the New York visit could help improve the country’s economic situation, and doubted Iran was heading towards a war with the US, which he said was “bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan”.

“I’m old, but how about the future of my grandchildren who need housing, jobs and education?” he said. “Prices are going up on a daily basis. Beans are becoming as expensive as meat and chicken.”

But more educated people reacted differently. “The world should know that this psychologically unstable man only represents his small radical faction and not people like me,” said Neda, a 21-year-old medical student in affluent northern Tehran.

“I doubt his presence in New York will reduce the possibility of a military confrontation, rather his rhetoric could increase the risk of war.”

Another student, Hassan, studying art, said he hoped Mr Ahmadi-Nejad would not “create more enemies” for Iran before his term finished in 2009.

“I hope he doesn’t decide to slap the face of his enemy again in New York,” he said ironically.

“But I doubt this president will learn anything and will put in another embarrassing appearance at the UN and probably see light around his head again [referring to Mr Ahmadi-Nejad’s claim that he saw light around his head when he addressed the UN in 2005].”

Source: The Financial Times