MISSING IRANIAN GENERAL FOUNDED HEZBOLLAH

Missing Iranian "founded" Hezbollah: Israeli spy An Iranian ex-deputy defense minister who went missing in what may have been a Western intelligence operation is best known to Israel as the "founder" of Lebanon's Hezbollah, a retired Israeli spy said on Wednesday. Ali Reza Asgari, 63, disappeared while on a trip to Turkey last month. Turkish newspaper Hurriyet said in an unsourced report that he was involved in Iran's nuclear program. If so, he would be a major asset for Western or Israeli interrogators. A former official with Israel's foreign spy service Mossad, Ram Igra, said that before Asgari took up the Defense Ministry post he had been a commander with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the main sponsor of Shi'ite guerrilla group Hezbollah. "In the 1980s and early 1990s, Asgari was responsible for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon. This is his real importance, not his connection to the Iranian Defense Ministry," Igra told Israel Radio. "He lived in Lebanon and, in effect, was the man who built, promoted and founded Hezbollah in those years," Igra said. "If he has something to give the West, it is in this context of terrorism and Hezbollah's network in Lebanon." Hezbollah is one of Israel's toughest regional enemies. It is also on the U.S. State Department's terrorist watch-list. Western strategists have speculated that Tehran could order Hezbollah to attack American and Jewish interests abroad should Washington or Israel attack Iranian nuclear plants to prevent them making bombs. Iran insists its atomic plans are peaceful. Iran has not given a detailed account of Asgari's career. But Iran's police chief said on Tuesday that he may have been kidnapped by Western spies "because of his Defense Ministry background." Hezbollah declined comment on the case. "DEBRIEFED IN EUROPE" Turkish, Arabic and Israeli media have suggested that Asgari, who vanished after checking into an Istanbul hotel on February 7, defected to the West, perhaps with his family. According to the London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awsat on Wednesday, Asgari had been spirited out to a northern European country where he was being debriefed by military experts. The reports have not received independent confirmation. Israeli media have suggested Mossad may have had additional interest in Asgari given its efforts to retrieve Ron Arad, an Israeli airman who was captured by Iran-linked militiaman after bailing out over Lebanon in 1986. Arad later vanished. Israel has accused Iran and Hezbollah of withholding information on Arad's fate, something that they both deny. The stand-off over the missing airman has held up the second stage of a Hezbollah-Israel prisoner swap brokered by Germany in 2004. The issue was further complicated by Hezbollah's seizure of two Israeli soldiers in a deadly border raid last July, which sparked a 34-day offensive by Israel in Lebanon. Igra, who was formerly in charge of Mossad's intelligence gathering on missing Israeli servicemen, played down Asgari's potential value regarding Arad. "If we assume the Iranians have a role in his disappearance -- and this is an unproven assumption -- then Asgari has something to say about this," Igra said. "But if it's wrong, then Asgari will not say more than the Hezbollah leader tells us via the media, which is that Iran had nothing to do with it." http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070307/wl_nm/iran_missing_hezbollah_dc