Officials Dismiss Flurry of Reports on Missing Airman

Israeli security sources are examining the claims of an exiled Iranian that he saw missing Israeli airman Ron Arad in an Iranian jail.

Despite their investigation, the sources dismissed the former Iranian diplomat as being “unreliable,” and said they could neither confirm nor deny his claims.

Over the weekend, Israel’s Channel 2 broadcast an interview with the Iranian exile, Manasher Mutamer, who claimed that he had seen Arad, who was shot down over Lebanon in 1986 and was believed to have taken alive.

Mutamer, who fled Iran 10 months ago, said Arad was being held in a security jail near the Iranian city of Isfahan. He described Arad’s health and mental state as “very bad.”

Mutamer further claimed that guards at the jail had told him that the prisoner was “the Zionist” who had bailed out from an Israeli fighter plane over Lebanon. He said Arad was being moved from place to place every few months.

The Iranian’s claims follow reports last week that Israel and Iran have been holding secret contacts, with German mediation, on Arad’s fate.

The German newspaper that published the report said a tape and letter from Arad had been given to his family.

Israeli sources last week denied any knowledge of such contacts and refuted the story.

But Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin did confirm last week that Germany had been negotiating with Iran for Arad’s release.

At the same time, an Israeli official said that German government had leaked details about its discussions with Iran about Arad in order to divert the world’s attention from an important trade decision it had made regarding the Islamic republic.

Claiming that Iran’s financial status had improved, Germany’s Economics Ministry last week reportedly reinstated government-baked credits to Iran valued at some $100 million.

With little apparent progress made in obtaining Arad’s release, the families of missing and captured Israeli servicemen have become increasingly critical of Israeli efforts to locate and release their loved ones.

Hen Arad, the brother of Ron Arad, said this week that although the Israeli government says Iran is “responsible for the fate of Ron Arad,’ the opposite is actually true.

“Mr. Rabin, you are responsible for the fate of Ron, and not the other way,” Arad said. “You sent him, you were defense minister at the time. Today your are the prime minister, and for the whole eight years [that he has been missing] you directed the security apparatus. Where is Ron today?”

Meanwhile, Rabin on Sunday dismissed the recent reports on Arad’s whereabouts.

“No other sources have succeeded to bring any clear information on the fate of Arad,” he said.

At the same time, he insisted that Israeli officials would continue to pursue any relevant information.

“Whenever there is a new intelligence, we will do everything we can,” he said.

At the same time, Rabin was appointed a new head to the team of security and military officials who handle ongoing attempts to recover missing and captured servicemen.

The move came after a commission appointed by the prime minister a year ago recommended that the staff be changed.

The commission examined how security and military officials have dealt with information gathered on the fates of missing and captured Israeli servicemen. It also investigated the contacts that were subsequently held and focused in particular on the actions of the head of the negotiating team, Uri Lubrani.

As a result of the committee’s recommendations, Rabin appointed Yossi Genossar, a former senior official in the General Security Service, to head the staff.