FBI seeking arrest of Iran’s Pakistan ambassador is a challenge for Islamabad

On July 15 the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) field office in Washington “released seeking information posters featuring three senior Iranian intelligence officers who were involved in the abduction of retired FBI Special Agent Robert A ‘Bob’ Levinson from Kish Island, Iran, on March 9, 2007". The release of the posters is part of the FBI’s ongoing investigation into Iranian officials who allegedly played roles in Bob’s abduction and Iran’s attempt to obfuscate its responsibility.

One of the three, Reza Amiri Moghadam, is currently his country’s ambassador to Pakistan. It is highly unusual for a country to issue a ‘wanted’ poster about another country’s ambassador to a third country. This is especially so if the country issuing the poster and where the ambassador is stationed do not have hostile relations. It is embarrassing not only for the ambassador but also for the country to which he is accredited. Clearly, the US is not concerned with such diplomatic niceties, especially in Trumpian times!

This is not the first occasion on which the US has made allegations regarding Moghadam’s involvement in Levinson’s disappearance from Kish Island more than 18 years ago. On March 25 this year, the US Treasury Department issued a press release that stated, inter alia,“Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is imposing sanctions on three Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) officials who were involved in the abduction, detention, and probable death of former FBI Special Agent Robert A ‘Bob’ Levinson. The individuals designated today, Reza Amiri Moghadam, Gholamhossein Mohammadnia, and Taqi Daneshvar, all played a role in Mr Levinson’s abduction, probable death, and Iran’s efforts to cover up or obfuscate their responsibility.”

The press release went on to state, “Reza Amiri Moghadam, also known as Ahmad Amirinia, has been a head of MOIS’s operations unit, with MOIS agents in Europe at one point reporting to him in Tehran. Moghadam is the current Iranian ambassador to Pakistan. Moghadam has held a senior role in the Levinson case and has obfuscated the truth about Mr Levinson’s abduction.” The FBI action of issuing wanted posters against Moghadam is more eye-catching than the Treasury action. It shows his photograph and puts him, as far as the US system is concerned, dramatically in an alleged criminal category. Consequently, it has caught far greater attention in Pakistan and elsewhere than the Treasury action.

The US system is pursuing the Levinson case, among other reasons, because of the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act of December 2020 and a presidential order of 2023 taken pursuant to that act. The designations of individuals by the Treasury Department mean that all property and interests of the designated individuals under US control are ‘blocked’ and US nationals and entities are prevented from entering into a series of specific transactions against them.

It is noteworthy that between the US Treasury designations and the FBI posters, a period of positivity has prevailed between the US and Pakistan. While the US has recently designated The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, as a foreign terrorist organisation, and this is a good and welcome development for India, Pakistan has registered a muted public protest. Indian policymakers should not, however, overlook that it took the US almost three months to do so after the dastardly Pahalgam attack. Besides, while the US did condemn the Pahalgam attack—as did every major country—it has not held Pakistan responsible for it.

Despite India’s statements to the contrary, President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated since May 10 how he prevented the armed hostilities between India and Pakistan from moving into the nuclear dimension. Most recently, he has said that five aircraft were lost during the hostilities, though he has not stated which country lost them. But given the Pakistani global narrative on this issue, Trump’s lack of clarity should certainly not be welcome in India. Finally, it was during this period of positivity that Trump hosted Field Marshal Asim Munir for an unprecedented two-hour lunch and talks at the White House on June 18.

In the light of these positive developments with the US, the Pakistanis have trod a very careful ‘neutral’ line on the Moghadam issue. The Pakistan Foreign Ministry has not issued any media statement. It has employed the ploy of responding to individual queries from both Pakistani and foreign media. Thus, the Ministry’s spokesperson Shafqat Khan told the Pakistani newspaper Dawn’s digital platform Dawn.com, in response to a query on Moghadam, “As far as Pakistan is concerned, the ambassador of Iran is widely respected for his role in the promotion of Pakistan-Iran relations. He is entitled to all the privileges, immunities, and respect due to [being an] ambassador, and that too from a friendly neighbouring country.” He made the same comment to Arab News.

But, as of now, the Foreign Ministry has not put any comment on Moghadam on its website. This is an undoubted signal to Iran and the US. This is because, in terms of support, responses to specific media queries are, diplomatically, the lowest form of support for Moghadam. Thus, while Pakistan, which fully stood behind Iran during the Israel-Iran conflict and was critical of the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites, cannot obviously take any step to embarrass Iran over Moghadam, it shows that it dearly wants the Moghadam issue not to really upset the US.

Pakistan’s ties with Iran have witnessed a series of ups and downs since the Khomeini revolution. As a majority Sunni state, its alignment is really with the Sunni Arab world, which, despite all of China’s efforts, is at fundamental odds with Iran. Yet, in view of its sizeable Shia population over which Iran has influence, Pakistan does not want its ties with its Shia neighbour to become or remain in the negative zone. It therefore wants them to return to a balance whenever an incident dents them badly. The last time this happened was in January 2024. Violating Pakistani airspace, Iran targeted what it called the bases of Jaish-e-Adl, an anti-Iranian Baluchi group. Two days later Pakistan used its air force to bomb supposed bases of anti-Pakistani Baluchi groups in Iran. Both countries swiftly cooled the situation thereafter.

On the Moghadam matter, it is probable that in about six months, if not earlier, Pakistan would quietly ask Iran to replace him. It will be difficult for him to carry on his normal duties after the ‘wanted’ posters.

A brief account of the Levinson backstory may also be of interest to readers. Levinson was, in the early part of his career, with the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). He later joined the FBI, where he worked till 1998. After leaving the FBI, according to media reports, Levinson worked as a security consultant. In March 2007, he travelled to Kish Island in Iran. Kish is off the Iranian coast, and the Iranian system wants to develop it as a tourism hub and also a financial centre. Hence, they allow a more relaxed atmosphere to prevail there. It is claimed by the Americans that Levinson’s visit to Kish was entirely private, but some media reports have claimed that he was on a mission where the concerned US officials who sent him had not received the required clearances.

In Kish, Levinson met Dawud Salahuddin, a US national who had converted to Islam in the 1970s and who was obviously attracted to Ayatollah Khomeini and the Iranian Revolution. Salahuddin is accused of the killing in the US of the Khomeini critic Ali Akbar Tabatabaei. After this meeting he disappeared. He was last seen alive in a photograph received by his family in 2011. In 2020 Levinson’s family publicly announced that he had most probably died.

One significant lesson that the Indian system can derive from the Levinson case is never to close a file on the perpetrators of terrorist attacks against Indians. Their acts should not be forgotten or forgiven.

Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.