Detention Threatens U.S.-Iran Relations

In this undated photo released by the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, Ali Shakeri of Lake Forest, Calif., is shown. Iran confirmed Friday, June 8, 2007, that it is holding the Iranian-American peace activist, the fourth dual citizen it has detained in recent months, according to the Iranian Student News Agency. (AP Photo/Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, Paul R. Kennedy) (Paul R. Kennedy - AP)

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's confirmation Sunday that it has detained a fourth Iranian-American _ this one a peace activist from California _ seems certain to further rile relations between the two countries, already tense over Iran's nuclear program.

The United States has criticized the detentions but Iran insists America has no right to interfere.

Mohammad Ali Hosseini, the spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry, confirmed at his weekly news briefing that Iranian-American Ali Shakeri is being held.

On Friday, the semi-official ISNA news agency first reported the detention and investigation of Shakeri, of Lake Forest, Calif., by the security department of the Tehran prosecutor's office.

Shakeri, a founding board member of the University of California, Irvine, Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, is the fourth dual citizen detained in Iran in recent months.

Iranian officials previously confirmed the detentions of three other Iranian-Americans: scholar Haleh Esfandiari, the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant with George Soros' Open Society Institute; and Parnaz Azima, a journalist who works for the U.S.-funded Radio Farda.

All three are accused of endangering Iran's national security and of espionage, according to a judiciary spokesman. It is not known if Shakeri has been accused of specific wrongdoing.

They were in Iran visiting family or working, according to the State Department, relatives and employers.

President Bush has demanded that Iran "immediately and unconditionally" released them, and has denied that they were spying for the United States. Family, colleagues and employers also denied the allegations.

Bush's remarks have drawn criticism from Iranian officials, who accuse him of interfering in Iran's internal affairs.

Iran has also escalated accusations against the United States, saying last month it uncovered spy rings organized by the U.S. and its Western allies.

Meanwhile, five Iranian officials detained in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil by U.S. troops in January, remain in U.S. custody. The U.S. military has said they are suspected of links to a network supplying arms to Iraqi insurgents _ an accusation that Iran has denied.