Iranian-Americans in Iran wary after detentions

TEHRAN, May 27 (Reuters) Iran's community of Iranian-Americans have straddled an awkward divide between the two arch foes for 27 years but a series of arrests of fellow dual nationals in recent weeks is rattling some now.

US officials and think-tanks say four Iranian-Americans on visits to Iran have been detained by the authorities, though Iranian officials have confirmed only one and linked her to US efforts to undermine the Iranian government.

At a weekend conference in Tehran held by a liberal-leaning Iranian think-tank, concerns were apparent as some dual nationals and U.S. citizens stayed away from an event that has previously drawn a sizeable American contingent.

''Two Americans didn't come because they were advised by their Iranian-American friends not to come to Iran,'' one businessman said at the two-day meeting.

An Iranian official said some Americans had visas but were ''advised'' by officials not to turn up. He did not elaborate.

The worries were sparked by the detention this month of US-Iranian academic Haleh Esfandiari, accused of links to groups backing a so-called ''soft revolution'', a perceived U.S.

plot to topple the government using intellectuals and others.

Three more dual nationals have reportedly been held since.

''I don't have any comment (on the situation) and, as an Iranian-American, I don't think I should have any comment,'' said one dual national in Iran, who did not want to be named.

Some see the detentions as part of muscle-flexing by hardliners in the establishment opposed to rapprochement with Washington ahead of rare US-Iranian talks on Iraq tomorrow.

A few thousand Iranian-Americans live in Iran but precise numbers are difficult to obtain in a country where there has been no US mission since Washington cut ties in 1980, when students held 52 Americans hostage in the embassy for 444 days.

The two sides have traded barbs since then. The United States is often denounced as ''the Great Satan'' by Iran, which Washington in turn brands as part of an ''axis of evil''.

'DOWN, DOWN, US' But the Iranian public often comes across to the visitor as less anti-American than that of many West Asian countries.

When planes slammed into New York's World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, ordinary Iranians held an impromptu vigil in Tehran, a show of solidarity not repeated in the Arab world.

In part this is because many Iranians have relatives in the United States, home to the biggest Iranian community outside Iran, estimated at 500,000 or more. Los Angeles is dubbed by some 'Tehrangeles' because of its large Iranian population.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has revived some of the anti-American spirit that gripped the nation after the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the US-backed shah. He regularly attacks U.S. ''arrogance'' in his speeches.

Yet, like the peeling paint on a Tehran sign reading 'Down, Down, USA', such slogans are sometimes said without conviction.

At a rally two years ago, outside the former US embassy, a youth burning the Stars and Stripes was asked by Reuters if he wanted to go to the United States. Without missing a beat, he replied: ''I would love to. It is the country of technology.'' Politically, foreign policy aims often coincide.

Iran was happy to see Saddam Hussein deposed in 2003, even if by US forces, because the Iraqi leader waged a war against the Islamic Republic in the 1980s. Shi'ite Muslim Iran also welcomed the fall in 2001 of Afghanistan's Sunni Muslim Taliban.

But both governments seem focused on their differences.

Some analysts link the detention of Iranian-Americans to the arrest of five Iranians in Iraq by US forces, although Tehran rejects links to other issues. Iran says the five are diplomats but Washington says they were backing militants.

''If the five Iranians in prison in Iraq were released, maybe Esfandiari would be freed,'' said analyst Hamidreza Jalaiepour.

Yet others see the detentions as a broader warning to intellectuals and potential critics of Iran's clerical system.

REUTERS SG KP1952