TEHRAN, Jan 19, 2009 (AFP) - Iran said on Monday that two doctors jailed since June were among a group convicted of a US-backed plot to overthrow the Islamic republic by creating social upheaval, Fars news agency reported.
"Among the four key elements arrested in this case there were two doctors named Arash and Kamiar Alaei," said the counter-espionage director at Iran's intelligence ministry, who was not named.
"Four people in this case who have been confronted were key elements who knowingly cooperated with US intelligence people in the region and fully implemented their demands," the official said.
The two brothers, who have been in jail since June, were known for their pioneering work in HIV/AIDS. Iran announced last week the group had been sentenced to undisclosed jail terms.
"People such as (US Under Secretary of State) William Burns, (Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs) Goli Ameri, (US official) Ramin Asgar and some other people linked with the US intelligence service in the region had a direct involvement in this project," the official charged, claiming the United States had spent 32 million dollars on the plot.
The intelligence official said the group sought to "incite social crises, organise street rallies and interfere in ethnic issues."
The Iranian judiciary recently disclosed details on a series of cases involving charges against opposition groups, including those said to have links abroad.
Tehran accuses Washington and London of backing violent and non-violent actions against the state.
"The United States sought to create a network inside Iran under cover of academic work and wanted to pursue a colour revolution by connecting with the elite and effective people," the security official said.
Iran's academics, clerics, artists, doctors and athletes were targeted and invited to US trips for meetings.
During these visits "Americans sought to portray the US as the only saviour of Iran so they would pressure officials back home and create a gap between people and officials," he said.
US officials such as Burns and Ameri asked the visitors to connect others to the network in an "inverse pyramid model," he said.
American institutions such as the Wilson Centre, Soros's Open Society Institute and the US-based International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) were also involved in the project, the official claimed.
Dozens of people apart from the key four were involved with the plot, he said, and claimed that Iranian intelligence operatives had been able to infiltrate the network.
"The intelligence service took action against some but some others among specialists were only deceived, they were not proven to bear ill intentions and action was dropped."
He promised that the convicts' "confessions" would soon be aired on Iranian television.
In 2007, Iran detained for over three months three Iranian Americans including academic Haleh Esfandiari, who heads the Wilson Center's Middle East programme, over suspicions of causing harm to national security.
US-Iranian Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planning expert, was detained over his work with the Soros institute.
The security official advised the government of US president-elect Barack Obama, who takes office Tuesday, "not to go down the same path of the previous administration."
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