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)

In an interview with The Associated Press this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the detentions of the Iranian-Americans were unwarranted but would not stop the United States from trying to engage Iran on other matters, including its disputed nuclear program and alleged support of insurgents in Iraq.

"We take seriously the holding of any American anywhere in the world where they are being wrongly held and where they are being accused of things that clearly are untrue," Rice said. "It just shows again what kind of regime this is."

The United States and its allies are looking to increase the pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear uranium enrichment program at a meeting starting Monday of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board.

Iran insists it wants the technology only to meet future power needs and argues it is entitled to enrich uranium under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. But suspicions the program could be used to produce fissionable material for weapons have led to two sets of U.N. sanctions over its refusal to freeze enrichment.

The detentions of Iranian-Americans could be an obstacle to a second round of direct American-Iranian talks on Iraq this month. The talks have been billed as a possible window to better relations.

The U.S. and Iranian ambassadors in Iraq met last month in Baghdad and although they limited the agenda to Iraq's instability, the talks were groundbreaking as the first formal diplomatic meeting in nearly three decades.

After the meeting, Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi said the two sides would meet again in less than a month.

In the interview with the AP, Rice said the United States has not yet determined "when and if it makes sense" to continue the dialogue with Iran.

On Sunday, Hosseini said Iran had not agreed to a second round and that the Iranians were studying the results of the May 28 talks.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki later signaled Iran would be willing to continue the talks.

"Iraq should not be a scene for settling scores with any country. All should help in removing current problems of (Iraq)," Mottaki said.

The U.S. also has expressed concern about Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who the United States says has been missing since March after traveling to an Iranian resort island on private business.

Hosseini reiterated Sunday that Iran has no information about Levinson.

He also accused the United States of using scientific and research cooperation as a guise to work against Iran. It was not clear what he referred to, but many academics have criticized Iran for arresting scholars.

The United States broke ties with Tehran after the storming of the U.S. Embassy there in 1979 and the seizure of U.S diplomats as hostages. Iran held the Americans for 444 days, and the episode sealed Iran as the principal U.S. adversary in the Middle East.