Iran – American Scholar Detained in Iran.

Iran – on the hills of recent media attention to the disappearance of Former FBI Agent Robert Levonson, Iran today detained prominent American academic Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Smithsonian’s Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, according to a family member and center president Lee Hamilton.

Esfandiari, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen who has lived in the United States for more than a quarter century, has been under virtual house arrest since last December when the government refused to allow her to leave Iran after visiting her 93-year-old-mother. Since then, she has been summoned repeatedly for interrogations by intelligence officials about U.S. programs on Iran. In particular, she was questioned about Iran programs at the Woodrow Wilson Center, one of Washington’s most prominent foreign policy think tanks.

Esfandiari was summoned by the intelligence ministry again today but was then taken to Tehran’s Evin Prison, the sources said.

Esfandiari is one of three “soft hostages,” all dual U.S.-Iranian nationals, whose passports have been confiscated by the Iranian government, rendering them unable to leave the country. [washingtonpost]