Iran charges three U.S.-Iranian citizens with spying

By Hossein Jaseb

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has charged three U.S.-Iranian citizens with spying, officials said on Tuesday, a day after Washington and Tehran held their most high-profile talks in nearly 30 years.

Under Iran's Islamic sharia law, the charge could carry the death sentence. Judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi said the three were academic Haleh Esfandiari, social scientist Kian Tajbakhsh and journalist Parnaz Azima.

News of the charges emerged one day after officials from Iran and the United States, antagonists since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, met in Baghdad for talks on how to end the conflict in Iraq.

Tehran accuses Washington of using intellectuals and others inside the country to undermine the Islamic Republic through what it calls "velvet revolution." The United States has dismissed the accusation and denied that the three were spies.

A top Iranian Intelligence Ministry official said on Tuesday foreign powers were attempting to recruit university professors attending conferences abroad, state television reported.

"Unfortunately our university professors are under threat of being used by other countries' intelligence services," the unnamed official was quoted as saying.

Iran has arrested, detained or prevented at least three U.S.-Iranian citizens from leaving the country, including Esfandiari, director of the U.S. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Middle East program.

The United States has condemned the arrest of Esfandiari, detained on May 8 and accused of acting against national security and spying.