The Missing Iranian

A fomer member of the Iranian Defence Ministry has gone missing in Turkey.

Ankara's diplomatic and political circles are currently filled with gossip over a missing Iranian, thought by some to be a spy.

Iranian citizen Ali Rızari Asqhari, 63, who recently retired from the Iranian Defense Ministry, disappeared in Istanbul on Feb. 7, daily Hürriyet reported on Monday. Iran has made a diplomatic move, yesterday sending a delegation to Turkey to obtain more information on the missing man.

There are hints of Israeli involvement. Or American involvement.

A senior Iranian general, Ali-Raza Asgari, went missing nearly a month ago in Istanbul and Iranian officials claim that Israel and the United States may have had a hand in his disappearance.

Several days ago, Iranian website Baztab, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, reported that during the 1980s Asgari held a senior position in the Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon , and that following his return to Iran he was appointed deputy defense minister.

No official source in Iran has commented on the report about the disappearance, but a top official told Baztab that "some of the claims in the report are unequivocally incorrect."

The general's disappearance was first reported at the end of February in the Saudi newspaper al-Watan. The paper said that at the beginning of February Asgari visited Damascus and later flew o Istanbul in Turkey, where he checked into a hotel.

"Several Turkish citizens reserved a room for Asgari at the Gilan Hotel in Istanbul and paid for it, but haven't heard from him since," the paper stated.

So some claims are wrong. That leaves the option that others are correct. Maybe they got the hotel wrong and everything else is correct. Or perhaps it is a disinformation project. An Iranian delegation went to Turkey to check up on Asqhari so maybe he is important. Or maybe he is Iranian bait with nothing useful to tell. We probably will never know the truth.

The Jerusalem Post has an interesting biographical detail.

Askari is a former general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and served in the cabinet of former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami.

H/T Michael Ledeen