US persists in checking Iran leader '79 embassy hostage role

Reuters:

Fri Jul 29, 2005 3:11 AM ET By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran's president-elect was a leader in the student movement that organized the 1979 U.S. embassy takeover and the United States still is trying to determine if he was a hostage taker, the White House said on Thursday.

U.S. authorities have been checking into assertions by some former American hostages that Ahmadinejad was involved in the siege on the U.S. Embassy that lasted 444 days. Ahmadinejad takes office on Tuesday.

"We've looked into the allegations that were made about his involvement in the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. We know he was a leader of the student movement that organized the attack on the embassy and the taking of American hostages," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

"However, we are still looking into whether or not he was actually one of the hostage-takers," he said.

Ahmadinejad, and several hostage-takers, have denied he was involved in storming the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and holding 52 hostages in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The United States has not resumed diplomatic relations with Iran since that 1979-1981 crisis. President George W. Bush had labeled Iran a member of an "axis of evil," and the United States considers it a state sponsor of terrorism.

Iran considers the United States its arch enemy.

Several American hostages said they recognized Ahmadinejad from pictures published after his election and that they believed he was one of the captors. U.S. intelligence agencies are trying to determine what role Ahmadinejad may have played.

Photos widely published in the media several weeks ago showing a hostage taker raised speculation about whether it was a young Ahmadinejad.

But a U.S. official who declined to be identified said there were "significant discrepancies" in some of the facial features between the man in the photo and Iran's president-elect.

"His precise role in the takeover of the U.S. Embassy and holding of U.S. hostages is not yet resolved, but he was a student leader," the official said.