Washington, August 06: The State Department said Wednesday it has still not been able to officially confirm the arrest in Iran of three Americans who hiked across Iraq’s border.
The Swiss ambassador in Tehran, who represents US interests in Iran, inquired about the arrests with the Iranian Foreign Ministry but was unable to get further information about the Americans, said State Department spokesman Robert Wood.
“We’ve seen a lot of reports and we have no reason to doubt that those reports are true, that these individuals are being held in Iran. But until we have official confirmation of that, we can’t go forth and seek consular access,” he said.
The deputy governor for security in Iran’s Kordestan province, Iraj Hassanzadeh, told the Fars news agency Tuesday that the three had been arrested for illegal entry into the country from Iraq’s northern Kurdish region.
US media have identified the trio who went missing on Saturday while backpacking in the rugged mountains between Iraq and Iran as Shane Bauer, Sara Shourd and Joshua Fattal — all in their mid-20s.
–Agencies