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Iran Says U.S.-Iranians to Admit on Television to Espionage

By Ladane Nasseri

July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Iran's state television will air the alleged confessions of two Iranian-Americans whom the Islamic Republic has detained for over two months on espionage charges.

Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh's statements will be shown in a program to be broadcast on June 18 and again the following day at 9:45 p.m. local time, the state-run Fars News reported today. The news agency described the statements as ``confessions.''

Esfandiari is director of the Middle East program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Tajbakhsh is a consultant on urban planning and worked with billionaire investor George Soros's Open Society Institute. The Institute has dismissed the allegations against Tajbakhsh, and the State Department has described the accusations against Esfandiari as ``absurd.''

The dual nationals, who were arrested early May, are accused by Iran of ``acting against the security of the country'' and ``spying'' for foreigners, Fars said.

Iran says the U.S. is sending agents or assigning individuals to undermine the regime. In recent months, the Islamic Republic has imprisoned or prevented the departure of four Iranians with dual American nationality.

Parnaz Azima, a correspondent for U.S.-funded Radio Farda, had her passport confiscated in January and cannot leave the country, though she hasn't been jailed. Ali Shakeri, a U.S. mortgage banker who also works for a California-based conflict- resolution group called the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, is also being detained.

U.S. President George W. Bush on June 1 demanded that the Iranian government release the four ``immediately and unconditionally,'' saying that their presence ``posed no threat.''

Iran Says U.S.-Iranians to Admit on Television to Espionage  (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=all5hbuffYmg&refer=us)

Iran already has a record of lies to.