Tehran, Jan 21 The Tehran government has slammed the "blatant hostage-taking of Iranian national" by the US government for allegedly acting as an unregistered "foreign agent".
The remark was made by Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh to a media outlet on Wednesday when asked about the arrest of Iranian university professor Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi in the US, reports Xinhua news agency.
"Unfortunately, the US is addicted to this kind of actions and they take hostages under any pretext," the spokesman said.
Iran's government, he further noted, hopes the new US administration will move away from such an approach, that Khatibzadeh linked to former President Donald Trump.
Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, he went on to say, is a well-known university professor who has been arrested on "unrealistic charges".
This is not the first time that Washington has relied on "baseless allegations" to "create trouble" for Iranian citizens in different countries and "take hostages", he added.
Khatibzadeh voiced hope that the Iranian professor's problem will be solved as soon as possible.
Afrasiabi, a US resident for more than three decades, was taken into custody by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), on the accusation that he violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), the Washington Post said in a report on Tuesday.
( With inputs from IANS )
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