The United States is asking Iran to provide information about a US citizen believed to have gone missing several weeks ago in Iran while on private business there, the State Department said on Monday.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the family and employer of the man reported him missing and the State Department was sending an official inquiry to Iran via Swiss diplomats, who act as a go-between with Tehran because the two countries do not have diplomatic relations. "His family and his employer are seeking to determine exactly where he is," McCormack said.
McCormack emphasised the American was in Iran on private business and was not working for the US government. He is believed to have gone missing on Kish Island off the southern coast of Iran.
"We don't see any linkage between this case and any ongoing cases in the news recently," McCormack said, referring to 15 British sailors and Marines who are being held captive by Iran which says their vessel strayed into Iranian waters.
McCormack declined for privacy reasons to provide further information on the American except to say the United States had been monitoring the situation for several weeks but had not so far found any information on his whereabouts.
Later, a State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the department learned of the case about March 11 and had not so far uncovered any reliable information to indicate the Iranian government was involved.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been briefed about the case, he said, without providing further details. He added that there were two to three cases every year of Americans who were reported missing in Iran.