TEHRAN: Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, who claims he was kidnapped by US spies, surfaced at Tehran`s interest section in Washington on Tuesday to declare Americans "losers" in the long-running saga.

Iranian state television`s website said Amiri had taken refuge at the interest section, which is overseen by the Pakistani embassy in Washington, and added he had asked "for a quick return to Tehran."

Amiri soon afterwards told the New York reporter of the channel by telephone from the interest section that the Americans had wanted to try to resolve the affair quietly but had failed, the website said.

"After the release of my interview on the Internet and the disgrace for the American government over this abduction, they wanted to quietly return me to Iran by some country`s airline, so that while denying the whole thing they can put a cap on the abduction," Amiri said.

"But in the end they couldn`t. Since the day of the release of my remarks on the Internet, the Americans have seen themselves as losers in this saga."

In June, a man claiming to be Amiri was shown in two separate videos broadcast on Iran state television. In one of the videos he said he had escaped from the hands of US agents in Virginia.

Pakistan confirmed that Amiri was at the Iranian interest section in Washington and that he was being repatriated to Tehran.

"Doctor Amiri appeared at the Iranian interest section ... what we understand from the Iranian officials there is that they are making arrangements for his repatriation to Iran," Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told AFP in Islamabad.

Iran`s interests in the United States are managed by the Pakistan embassy as Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic ties for more than three decades.
Basit, however, said that Amiri was "not on the Pakistan embassy premises" but "in the Iranian interest section" which ia located some distance from Islamabad`s mission.

US State Department officials were not immediately available for comment.

Iranian officials have long maintained that Amiri was kidnapped by US agents from Saudi Arabia last year after he arrived for a Muslim pilgrimage.

Iran last week said it had submitted "evidence" to the Swiss embassy that Amiri was abducted by US intelligence agents. The Swiss embassy manages Washington`s interests in Iran.

On June 29, Iranian television screened a video of a man claiming to be Amiri and saying that he had managed to escape from the hands of US intelligence agents in Virginia.

"I could be re-arrested at any time by US agents... I am not free and I`m not allowed to contact my family. If something happens and I do not return home alive, the US government will be responsible," he said.

"I ask Iranian officials and organisations that defend human rights to raise pressure on the US government for my release and return to my country," the man said, insisting he had not "betrayed" Iran.

US officials have dismissed the allegations in the Iranian broadcast.

Amiri disappeared in June 2009 after arriving in Saudi Arabia for a pilgrimage. Iran accused US agents of abducting him with the help of Saudi intelligence services.

US television network ABC reported in March that Amiri, in his early 30s, had defected and was working with the Central Intelligence Agency.

The ABC report said that US agents described the defection as "an intelligence coup" in efforts to undermine Iran`s controversial nuclear programme.

Amiri`s disappearance "was part of a long-planned CIA operation to get him to defect," ABC reported. US officials have rejected these allegations.

Iran has summoned the Swiss ambassador in Tehran at least twice over the matter and demanded the release and repatriation of Amiri along with 10 other Iranian nationals, whom it says have been "illegally detained" in the United States.

BDST: 1519 HRS, July 13, 2010