DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An Iranian-American journalist who once worked for a U.S. government-funded broadcaster is believed to have been held in Iran for months, authorities said Sunday, raising the stakes even further as Tehran threatens to retaliate for an Israeli attack on the country.
The capture of Reza Alizadeh, which the U.S. State Department acknowledged to The Associated Press, came as Iran marked the 45th anniversary of the U.S. embassy takeover and hostage crisis on Sunday. It also followed the day that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened both Israel and the U.S. with “a crushing response” if long-range B-52 bombers reached the Middle East in an attempt to deter Tehran.
Alizadeh had worked for Radio Farad, an outlet under Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is run by the U.S. Agency for Global Media. In February, he wrote on the social platform X that his family members had been detained in an attempt to force him to return to Iran.
In August, Alizadeh apparently posted two messages suggesting he had returned to Iran, despite Radio Farad being seen as a hostile station by Iran’s theocracy.
“I arrived in Tehran on March 6, 2024. Before that, I had unfinished negotiations with the (Revolutionary Guards) intelligence service,” the report read in part. “Finally, after 13 years, I returned to my country without any security guarantees, not even verbal ones.”
Valizadeh added the name of a man he said was from Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. The AP could not verify whether the person worked for the ministry.
Valizadeh had been rumored to have been detained for weeks. The Human Rights Activists News Agency, which tracks cases in Iran, said he was detained upon arrival in the country earlier this year but was later released.
He was then rearrested and sent to Evin Prison, where he is now facing a case in Iran’s Revolutionary Court, which routinely holds closed hearings in which suspects are confronted with secret evidence, the agency said. Valizadeh had also been arrested in 2007, it said.
The State Department said it was “aware of reports that this dual U.S.-Iranian citizen has been arrested in Iran” when asked about Valizadeh.
“We are working with our Swiss partners, who serve as a protective force for the United States in Iran, to gather more information about this case,” the State Department said. “Iran routinely imprisons U.S. citizens and citizens of other countries for political purposes. This practice is cruel and violates international law.”
Iran has not acknowledged holding Valizadeh. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Voice of America, another U.S. government-funded media outlet overseen by the Agency for Global Media, was the first to report that the State Department acknowledged Alizadeh’s detention in Iran.
Since the 1979 U.S. embassy crisis, in which dozens of hostages were freed after 444 days of captivity, Iran has used prisoners with Western ties as bargaining chips in negotiations with the world. In September 2023, five Americans held in Iran for years were released in exchange for five Iranians in U.S. custody and $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets to be released by South Korea.
Valizadeh is the first American known to have been detained by Iran since then.
Meanwhile, Iranian state television broadcast footage from several cities around the country on Sunday to mark the anniversary of the embassy takeover.
General Hossein Salami, the head of the Guard, also spoke in Tehran, where he reiterated a promise Khamenei made the day before.
“The Resistance Front and Iran will equip themselves with everything necessary to confront and defeat the enemy,” he said, referring to militant groups such as Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah that Tehran supports.
In Tehran, thousands of people chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” at the gates of the former US embassy. Some burned flags of the countries and effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
They also carried images of slain top figures from Iran-linked militant groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Palestinian Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. The crowds at the state-organized demonstrations chanted that they were ready to defend the Palestinians.