Mojtaba Atarodi, arrested in California for attempting to acquire equipment for
Iran’s military-nuclear programs, was released in April as part of back channel
talks, Times of Israel told. The contacts, mediated in Oman for years by close
colleague of the Sultan, have seen a series of US-Iran prisoner releases, and
there may be more to come
The secret back channel of negotiations between Iran
and the United States, which led to this month’s interim deal in Geneva on
Iran’s rogue nuclear program, has also seen a series of prisoner releases by
both sides, which have played a central role in bridging the distance between
the two nations, the Times of Israel has been told.
In the most dramatic of those releases, the US in
April released a top Iranian scientist, Mojtaba Atarodi, who had been arrested
in 2011 for attempting to acquire equipment that could be used for Iran’s
military-nuclear programs.
American and Iranian
officials have been meeting secretly in Oman on and off for years, according to
a respected Israeli intelligence analyst, Ronen Solomon. And in the past three
years as a consequence of those talks, Iran released three American prisoners,
all via Oman, and the US responded in kind. Then, most critically, in April, when the back channel
was reactivated in advance of the Geneva P5+1 meetings, the US released a fourth
Iranian prisoner, high-ranking Iranian scientist Atarodi, who was arrested in
California on charges that remain sealed but relate to his attempt to acquire
what are known as dual-use technologies, or equipment that could be used for
Iran’s military-nuclear programs. Iran has not reciprocated for that
latest release.
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