March 07, 2007	Wednesday	Safar 17, 1428

ANKARA: Mystery swirled on Tuesday over the disappearance of a senior Iranian official in Turkey, with accusations in Tehran he was snatched by Western spy agencies and even the Israeli media suggesting it may have been the work of their own Mossad.

Ali Reza Asghari, a former deputy defence minister said to have information about Iran's nuclear programme, went missing in Istanbul in February shortly after checking into a luxury hotel, press reports said.

“It is possible that the former deputy defence minister, Mr Asghari, was kidnapped by the Western secret services due to his past at the ministry of defence,” said Iranian police chief Ismaeel Ahmadi Moghadam.

“Police investigations show that he did not leave Turkey and was not in any of the hospitals in that country,” he was quoted as saying by the IRNA news agency.—AFP