TEHRAN, Jan 11, 2011 (AFP) - Iran denied on Tuesday it has arrested a US woman as claimed by a senior border police officer, adding that she never entered the Islamic republic.
"From the start she never entered Iran ... The issue was sorted out at the level of border control," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters at his weekly press conference.
He was referring to a woman named Hal Talayan who according to an Iranian border police officer was arrested on January 5 in the town of Jolfa on the border with Azerbaijan's autonomous region of Naxcivan, close to Armenia.
"The news which was published was not an important and significant issue, which is why there was no official explanation given," Mehmanparast said when asked to elaborate on the report of Talayan's arrest.
"Because it (the issue) was not important it ended."
On Sunday, Ahmad Garavand, deputy head of Iran's border police, told reporters that his forces had arrested a US woman "spy" in Jolfa.
"This American woman spy has been arrested at Jolfa" in northwestern Iran, Garavand was quoted as saying by Fars.
"This person was arrested on January 5 while she was filming under cover as a tourist, and she was on a mission from the US spy agency," he said.
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Copyright AFP 2011.
