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 VOA News has reported that an Iranian official has stated authorities are interrogating three Americans detained since August 1 on charges of entering Iran from Iraq without permission. The trio was arrested near the Iranian town of Marivan, after they most likely inadvertently wandered over the border from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.
The detained Americans have been named by relatives as Shane Bauer, a Middle East-based freelance journalist from Minnesota; his girlfriend, Sarah Shourd, a contributor to Brave New Traveler, an online travel magazine; and Joshua Fattal from Pennsylvania, whose father is Iraqi. The Washington Post reported that on Brave New Traveler magazine's website, Shourd described herself as a "teacher-activist-writer from California currently based in the Middle East." Bauer, of Minnesota, is a Middle East correspondent for New American Media and has written for other publications, including the Nation magazine. All three of the hikers are graduates of the University of California, Berkeley.
"My husband and I are eager for the best welfare and conditions for our son, Josh, and for the other two companions he's with," Laura Fattal of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, told CNN Radio. "And that is our only concern, his welfare and the best conditions for him."
Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency on August 4 quoted Iraj Hassanzadeh, a deputy governor of Iran's Kordestan province, as saying the three Americans have not confessed to any crime.
"At the moment they are in detention and have made no confessions," Hassanzadeh was quoted as saying. "Anyone who tries to enter Iran illegally from the Kordestan border will be arrested."
"We don't know whether they are tourists or not. We are questioning them," BBC News quoted a local security official as saying.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the United States is working through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran to obtain information about the three tourists and bring them home. The United States has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since the 1979 revolution.
"Obviously, we are concerned," Clinton told reporters at the State Department. "We want this matter brought to a resolution as soon as possible. And we call on the Iranian government to help us determine the whereabouts of the three missing Americans and return them as quickly as possible."
The Los Angeles Times cited Iran's Arabic al-Alam T, which briefly flashed a bulletin on August 3 saying the three young Americans had been identified by Iraqi police as CIA agents, but the item was quickly removed, suggesting to observers that the Iranian authorities have not yet decided how to handle the incident. Some analysts have expressed concerns that the three could be used as bargaining chips in the tense relationship between Tehran and Washington. Relations between the two nations have been tested by the dispute over Iran's nuclear fuel enrichment program — which some observers think is a weapons program in disguise — and its recent disputed presidential election.
In yesterday's report on this event in our affiliated news magazine, The New American ("Iran Detains Three American Tourists"), we noted similarities between the detention of the American hikers by Iranian police and the arrest of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two U.S. journalists detained by North Korea on March 17. On June 8, a North Korean court sentenced Ling and Lee to 12 years of "reform through labor" for an illegal border crossing and an unspecified "grave crime."
We observed that both countries have come under pressure from Western allies and the UN to stop their nuclear fuel enrichment programs. On April 12, 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the UN Security Council must consider "strong steps" to induce Tehran to curtail its nuclear program, which some people suspect has military applications.
Likewise, UN Security Council Resolution 1874 was adopted unanimously, with U.S. support, by the Security Council on June 12 in the aftermath of an underground nuclear test conducted by North Korea on May 25. It imposed further economic and commercial sanctions on North Korea and encourages UN member states to search North Korean cargo.
Some observers believe that both aspiring nuclear powers may have used the detained Americans as hostages to blunt U.S. pressure and UN sanctions against them.
Showing interesting timing, as Secretary Clinton was addressing the detainment of the Americans in Iran, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, flew to Pyongyang, North Korea, on August 4 to meet with the communist nation's leader, Kim Jong Il.
According to the Times of London, North Korea's official news agency reported that Mr. Clinton and Mr. Kim engaged in "sincere and exhaustive discussions" on a range of issues and that the former president had delivered a "courteously conveyed" personal message from Barack Obama. The White House denied there had ever been such a message.
The Times writer observed:
It appears that the groundwork for the talks were well-laid and that Mr Clinton is likely to return to the U.S. with the two journalists in tow on [August 5]. Although nominally carried out in a private capacity, Mr Clinton's visit is believed to have the double purpose of both freeing Laura Ling and Euna Lee from their sentence of 12 years hard labor and of bringing North Korea back to the negotiating table on nuclear weapons.
All Americans hope, of course, that their fellow citizens detained in North Korea and Iran will be released quickly, and without harm. However, the diplomatic track records of both former President Clinton and Secretary of States Clinton make us wonder exactly what will come from their latest efforts, and if it will be beneficial to the United States in the long run.
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