LONDON: Britain said on Thursday it was “urgently seeking information” from Iran about the arrest of an Iranian-British national, while the British Council said an Iranian employee had also been detained.
Mahan Abedin is a journalist specializing in Islamic affairs and an analyst of Middle East politics who is head of the research group Dysart Consulting.
Asked about his reported arrest, a Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are urgently seeking information from the Iranian authorities following reports of the arrest of a British-Iranian dual national.”
Abedin would be the second British-Iranian dual national arrested in Iran in less than a month.
Iranian media last week confirmed that Abbas Edalat, a London-based British-Iranian computer scientist and peace campaigner had been arrested.
An Iranian national, Aras Amiri, who lives in London, was also held while on a private trip, according to the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran.
A spokeswoman for the British Council, the country’s international organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities, on Thursday said: “We are aware that one of our staff has been detained in Iran while making a private family visit.
“The colleague is an Iranian national. Despite an assertion that this individual has traveled to Iran for work this is not the case.”
