Iranian FM: ‘No Information’ on al-Jazeera Reporter
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Saturday that he had "no information" on the whereabouts of an American journalist working for al-Jazeera after Damascus said she was sent to Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"I have no information," Salehi said when asked whether Syria, Iran's main Arab ally, had handed over the journalist.
Syria expelled Dorothy Parvez to Iran after she tried to enter illegally on an expired Iranian passport, the Syrian embassy in Washington said in a statement on Wednesday.
The embassy said Parvez was put on a Caspian Airlines flight to Tehran on May 1, escorted by the Iranian consul in Damascus.
It said Parvez, whom they identified by the Iranian name Feiruz Parvez, was turned over to Iran because she was carrying an expired Iranian passport when she arrived in Damascus on April 29, giving "tourism" as her reason for travel.
"It is very regretful that a journalist working for a world renowned news agency such as Al-Jazeera International would attempt to enter a country on two illegal accounts: an expired passport, and by providing false information on official documents regarding her travel reason," the embassy said.
Parvez, who holds U.S., Canadian and Iranian passports, had been missing since her arrival in Syria, with no explanation given by the authorities until Wednesday.
Syrian authorities have sealed off the country to the international media amid a bloody crackdown on protests against the government of President Bashar Assad.
Parvez's fiance, Todd Barker, said Wednesday he was puzzled why she had been moved to Iran, adding he had no knowledge of her exact whereabouts.
"I don't know why they would deport her to Iran," Barker told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
"She was travelling on the Iranian passport," he acknowledged, adding however that in previous cases in which journalists had been refused entry into Syria they had been returned to their point of departure.
The Syrian embassy said she was detained in Damascus after a search of her luggage turned up transmitting equipment and a large sum of undeclared Syrian currency in cash.
"Seeing that Ms. Parvez's Iranian passport was expired, the Syrian authorities contacted the Iranian embassy in Damascus in order to receive a laissez passer for her to travel, and was in turn extradited in accordance with international law to the passport-issuing country," it said.
"Indeed, in less than 48 hours of her arrival, and on May 1st, Ms. Parvez was escorted by the Iranian consul," the embassy added.
Source: Agence France Presse
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