(Bloomberg) -- Iran has been holding a US-Iranian journalist in prison for months, the Associated Press reported, raising the risk of further friction between the two countries.
The US is aware of reports that a US-Iranian dual citizen has been arrested in Iran and is working with its Swiss partners to gather more information about the case, a State Department spokesperson said. Switzerland’s embassy in Tehran provides consular services for US citizens in Iran.
War in the Middle East has inflamed fraught relations between the US and Iran. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened on Saturday to unleash a “crushing response” against enemies, including the US, after Israel’s retaliatory missile strike on Iran.
Iran routinely and unjustly imprisons US and other countries’ citizens for political purposes, the State Department spokesperson said.
AP identified the imprisoned dual citizen as Reza Valizadeh, a journalist for a radio outlet overseen by the US Agency for Global Media. The State Department declined to comment further, citing privacy reasons.
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