US taking Iran claims seriously

2005-07-01 10:26

Tehran - Iran's new president was a member of the hard-line Islamic student group that seized the United States embassy in Tehran in 1979, but he opposed the takeover - preferring instead to target the Soviet Embassy, friends and former hostage-takers said on Thursday.

The former students who carried out the seizure and held the Americans for 444 days said Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had no role in taking the embassy or guarding the hostages.

In the turbulent early days of Iran's Islamic Revolution, Ahmadinejad was more concerned with putting down leftists and communists at universities than striking at Americans, they said.

Six former United States hostages who saw the president-elect in photos or on television said they believe Ahmadinejad was among the hostage-takers. One said he was interrogated by Ahmadinejad.

Could add to mistrust

The White House said on Thursday it was taking their statements seriously. President Bush said "many questions" were raised by the allegations.

The flap could add another layer of mistrust between the United States and the former Tehran mayor, who was elected president last week with the backing of some of the most hard-core members of the Islamic regime.

Leaders of the radical Islamic student group that carried out the November 4 1979, takeover of the embassy, said Ahmadinejad was not among the hostage-takers.

"He was not part of us. He played no role in the seizure," Abbas Abdi, one of six leaders of the group, told The Associated Press.

Mohammad Ali Sayed Nejad, a friend of the president-elect, said he and Ahmadinejad unsuccessfully argued in favour of seizing the Soviet Embassy at the time, and Ahmadinejad told colleagues in a recent meeting he opposed targeting the American mission because it would bring international condemnation down on Iran.

Ahmadinejad dropped his opposition to the US Embassy takeover after the revolution's leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, expressed support for it, but he never participated, said Rowhani.

Rasool Nafisi, a Middle East analyst who studies conservative groups in Iran, said Ahmadinejad may have frequented the embassy as one of the thousands of the students who camped out or were involved in protests there.

Former American hostage David Roeder and others told AP that after seeing Ahmadinejad on television, they were certain he was one of the hostage-takers.

"I can absolutely guarantee you he was not only one of the hostage-takers, he was present at my personal interrogation," Roeder said, though he added, "It's sort of more mannerisms."

William J Daugherty and Don A Sharer, two other hostages, said they believe Ahmadinejad is shown in two AP photos taken a few days after the embassy was seized.

Abdi and several other former hostage-takers were shown the same photos and said they did not believe the man was Ahmadinejad.

Members of Ahmadinejad's office refused to look at the photos or comment on the allegations.

- AP