US awaiting Iran’s ‘official’ word on three citizens

The United States says it is still awaiting an ‘official confirmation’ from the Iranian government on the detention of three American nationals.

The State Department’s Deputy Spokesman Robert Wood said on Monday that no official word on the issue was communicated to the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which represents the US interests in Iran.

“We await confirmation — official confirmation from the Iranian government,” Wood said, adding that the detainees were entitled to receive consular access ‘without delay’.

“We would just remind the Iranian government of its responsibilities under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which is to provide consular access to people that have been detained in what we would call without delay,” Wood said. “So we believe that these people need to have … consular visits.”

Switzerland represents the US interests in Iran since Tehran and Washington have not had diplomatic relations in about 30 years.

Reports indicate that since the detention of the three, the US Interests Section at the Swiss Embassy in Tehran has been trying to arrange a meeting with them.

White House National Security Adviser Jim Jones, however, had a different account on the story. On Sunday, he said that the US government had officially received confirmation of the detention and urged the release of the trio.

“The government has officially acknowledged that they have them in their custody. As of this morning, we do have that confirmation,” Jones said, adding “We have sent strong messages that we would like these three young people released as soon as possible.”

Wood, on the other hand, claimed that Jones had ‘basically’ said “that the Iranians have confirmed publicly that they have these people, but that communication has not been made directly to the United States government or through the Swiss intermediary.”

Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd, and Joshua Fattal, were detained by Iran on July 31 for ‘illegal entry’ into the country through a mountainous area of Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region.