Iran has turned to the United Nations for assistance in finding a former deputy defense minister who went missing in February 2007 while in Turkey,…
Brigadier General Ali-Reza Asgari is a retired Iranian general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, former deputy defense minister, and former cabinet member of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. Asgari had been "pushed aside" from his ministerial role after President Ahmadinejad, a former rival, came in to power in 2005. Asgari disappeared in Turkey in early 2007, and news reports indicate that he either defected or was kidnapped by Western intelligence agencies. His disappearance has also led to reports that Iran would retaliate by kidnapping American or Israeli officials in Europe. According to The Sunday Times, Asgari has been described as a "gold mine for western intelligence” by an Israeli defence source who claimed that they had been following him since the 1980s.






















